I think it’s pretty clear that the sign below is not well-punctuated:
The question is, what would the better punctuation be? Would a semicolon be amiss on a sign advising emergency protocol?
I think it’s pretty clear that the sign below is not well-punctuated:
The question is, what would the better punctuation be? Would a semicolon be amiss on a sign advising emergency protocol?
collecting tokens 
I’d be momentarily confused how to read that, but then the fire would remind me of the urgency behind the author’s choice to avoid pauses in the piece.