Coenotes

Coenotes (cee’-no-tees): Repetition of two different phrases: one at the beginning and the other at the end of successive paragraphs. Note: Composed of anaphora and epistrophe, coenotes is simply a more specific kind of symploce (the repetition of phrases, not merely words).

I was rolling along. I was on my bike and Jersey was my destination. I was rolling along. My legs were sore. Jersey was my destination. I shifted into low and. I rolled onto the Pulaski Skyway. It had an air of danger. I got dizzy looking down. I was rolling along. Jersey was my destination. Oh my God. I was already in Jersey! That’s when I decided to go Delaware Water Gap. Some day Pulaski Skyway will collapse and kill everybody on it as their heads get stuck in mud below. This is a fact. Don’t ignore it.

I started pedaling faster. I had to get off the damn bridge before it went down. There was a man standing with a sign that said, “THE END IS NEAR.” I decided to jump to save myself from the collapse. I was about midpoint across the bridge. Cars were cruising by as I set my bike down on the pavement. Some guy pulled up in a station wagon and asked if he could have my bike. I was going to die, so I told him to go ahead and take it. He thanked me politely, loaded it up, and look off with a smoking tailpipe.

I climbed up on the railing and jumped. I landed head first in the mud and it didn’t even hurt, the bridge was still there and my bike was gone.

I read in New York Magazine that the Pulaski Skyway attracts over 300 jumpers per year. It is speculated that jumpers feel spontaneous depression and fear on the bridge from arriving ar the belief that the bridge is about to collapse. They often give their jewelry and other valuables away to professional “collectors” trolling the bridge for people ready to check out. It is a great scam and “collectors” make quite a bit of money.

It’s hard to believe I was conned. In addition to my bike, I robbed of my watch and college class ring from Rutgers University, I’ll never ride across the Pulaski Skyway again.

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

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