The Puncture of Punctuation by Professor Julia Keefer (2015)

Tragedy must end with a period
Amputate loose ends of retribution
Terror continues with a question mark

An execution is a performance
Bounded by time and combusted in space
And Horror is its exclamation point

Comedy cackles while spitting out fun
Satire smirks with its steel edge in the sun
Side-splitting rib-tickling suicide stunts

Bullets blast innocents from right to left
Vests explode on a cacophonous road
While Terror taunts us with its question mark

Drama, with its comma, can transform pain
Empathy upstages Other’s evil
To soothe Tragedy’s mournful period

P.S. Dread spreads as my habits trump Fear
I am too tired for Big Emotions
But I love dance, cats, woods, water, food, books
That Terror burns down to a tragic mark