Checking Off - Dec 29 2023

 

Checking Off

Dec 29 2023

I keep lists.

Scraps of paper

post-it notes.

A torn envelope

that comes to hand.

The simple pleasure

of checking off, crossing out

scribbling over.

Of completed tasks.

Of scraps of paper

torn, balled, crumpled up,

then tossed

and washed my hands of.

Only to start from scratch.

Or add

to the malignant list,

expanding faster than I can run.

The clean slate, unplanned day

I only dare imagine

at the end of time.

And if I stopped?

Left it to memory

put things off?

Waited

until the urgency was gone;

the necessary

turning optional,

the would be nice

more a bother?

If only I could let go,

dispense with mnemonics

Relinquish control.

Resist

the demands of productivity.

Admit

to the completionist's illusion.

Give in to drift

and watch the universe unfold,

majestically indifferent

to my urgent scribbles

and paper lists.