Frilly words

All the words keep piling up.

I can’t seem to see over them.

I have to climb and stretch and overcome each

syllable and comma.

The apostrophes are too high and the ellipses trip me up.

Parentheses just make me claustrophobic

and the question marks are a mystery.

The exclamation marks deafen me,

while the colons stop me in my tracks:

but I just point and laugh at the semis.

The periods I don’t like to use,

they’re just too….final.

I’d rather use a dash-

and the underscore is like a diving board

into waves of hashtags and slashes__ >

#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#/#

Such frilly words and punctuation only tease me into a shift in

consciousness and control.

I now tab

myself to the deep escape of sleep.