Isocolon

Isocolon (i-so-co’-lon): A series of similarly structured elements having the same length. A kind of parallelism.

I gave you money. You gave me grief. I gave you a giant TV. You gave me a VHS tape. I managed to find a VHS player at a pawn shop and was able to play the tape. It was your wedding! You were drunk and kept lifting your dress and yelling “Come on baby, let’s do the hokey pokey. Emphasis on pokey!” Then, you went to light a cigarette and your wedding dress caught on fire, there was screaming and the screen went blank. Then it came back on.You were standing there crying with a singed dress and most of your hair burned off.

I have no idea why you gave me the tape, but I’ve always wondered about the patch behind your ear where no hair grows. And why did you give it to me now? We’ve been together for forty years, raised two children and have had a pretty good life. There are so many things about me I’ve never told you. All the money I lost betting on horses. All the women I had affairs with. All the bird houses I made in the basement. The women and horses predate you, but I have a clandestine bird house operation going deep in the basement.

Oh well. Life is a mystery. When I get home tonight we can have a couple glasses of wine and do the hokey pokey. No smoking!

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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