Colons

Clearly, I have taken colons
for granted for far too long:
both kinds.

For one, the sweet little piece
of punctuation that sets up
a list or example.

(Digression: How many times
did I repeat that to students
who were likely to never

use one? And truly, you
don’t need to unless, as
one of them pointed out,

“You’re trying to be fancy.”)
Two vertically aligned periods
that, I suppose, imitate

the verticality of human
innards, though that colon
is a snaky, winding thing

resembling complicated
plumbing, which it is.
And as mine heals from

a who-knows-how-I-got-it
infection, I am more aware
of my own than ever before,

which just shows to go you,
as a former newspaper photo
editor used to intone:

“Be good to your colon,
and your colon
will be good to you.”

•••

With thanks to Rick Shaw, a former assistant director of photography for The Sacramento Bee, who imparted that wisdom to at least one of his staff photographers, Dick Schmidt.

Rick went on to a great journalism editing career at other newspapers, as well as serving as a photojournalism faculty member and director of the Pictures of the Year International competition at the Missouri School of Journalism.