Other things on my to-do list:
1. Becoming an expat in Ecuador.
2. Willing my hair to grow faster.
3. Pretending I am allergic to peanuts so I will stop eating so much peanut butter.
4. Hanging out with my grandson (a.k.a. Super Dave).
5. Drinking less wine.
6. Deciding whether I want to live in the foothills of the Andes or near the beach in Ecuador.
7. Writing a new poem/short story/novel…
8. Finishing the painting I am working on.
9. Cleaning up my art studio.
10. Rearranging my list into the following order: 10, 4, 9, 5,8, 7, 6, 2, 3, 1
If you are making a to-do list, you should add to it: Write a list poem.
IN THE WHITE CANISTER AT THE BACK OF THE PANTRY
A small bag of Jello (flavor unknown)
whose box was sacrificed six months ago
to make a Christmas ornament;
The 15 year service pin I received just before
my desire to be a teacher became tarnished;
A pair of reading glasses with no left lens
(mentally draw a line through “pair”);
An unbelievably powerful magnet
harvested from an obsolete heart monitor;
A chain of paper clips linked together
by some idiot who obviously
never had to take apart a chain of paper clips
and who didn’t know they would be
forever stuck to a super magnet;
An old photo of a young woman in a wedding gown
who is not me but who looks exactly like me, even to me;
A power cord for the portable light box
that I let my grandson dismantle last week
because I couldn’t find the power cord.
*******
Now I can mark off #7 on my to-do list!
I will close today with a painting and a list by Neil Gaiman:
“I’ve been making a list of things they don’t teach you at school. They don’t teach you how to love somebody. They don’t teach you how to be famous. They don’t teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don’t teach you how to walk away from someone you don’t love any longer. They don’t teach you how to know what’s going on in someone else’s mind. They don’t teach you what to say to someone who is dying. They don’t teach you anything worth knowing.”