Mr Emoticon did not have a face

To indicate his feelings

On the front of his head

But an arrangement of letters, punctuation marks

And numbers

Made their home on there instead

A colon and a parenthesis a - :) or :(

Could mean he was happy or sad

A semi colon and a closing parenthesis - ;)

Means he's winking and glad

An underscore between two asterisks - *_*

Suggest he's seen a bonnie lass

A colon before an ampersand - :&

Means his tongue is getting tied quite fast

But when he frees his tongue

With a colon and a capital P - :P

He knows there's no time to waste

With a cheeky wink and a little smiley - ;) :)

And if it turns into a chevron

Followed by the number three - <3

It means he's fallen madly in love

It's plain for all to see

And the women he loved

Filled his face with smilies

Most of them found it quite sweet

Except for one who plugged in a keyboard

Dumped him

And then pressed

Delete.

:(     *_*     :&     ;)     :)     <3     :)     :) :) :) :)

The best bits of Reading Juice are available now in eBook form: