Traditional; December 20 2023

Alright, my tree is up, the stockings are on the walls, and I’ve watched two different versions of A Christmas Carol. The cats are wrestling in front of the menorah, which isn’t being lit right now for the obvious reason, which is that Hanukkah has already passed. Still, it’s officially the holidays.

I mean, not for essential workers, or exploited minimum wage employees, and my kid has a few more days of school, but. You know. Other than that, it’s the holidays!

There are one or two traditions I have – recipes, certain ornaments, particular Christmas movies. I’m hoping to come up with more that I can do with my kid, so if you have any fun traditions in mind, drop a comment below!

Today I really wanted to share the poem I wrote and was published by the (sadly, now no longer running) magazine called ‘Spoonie Press’. It’s kind of in honour of the stress you might be feeling, with all the social obligations.

It’s called ‘Make a List’.

Make a List

              Item one:

Make the list

But before you do, organize your thoughts

Put them to bullet points

Lest you forget what you wanted to write to begin with

What were you listing?

Best review.

              Item two:

Sort out those randomized thought patterns

But you can’t do that

Until you’ve finished item one

So let’s backtrack

What was it? Let’s see…

              To item three:

Did you remember to eat?

No wonder you’re dizzy –

Let’s put that on the list.

So start at one,

No, wait – point five.

Find yourself a pen.

You have paper, don’t you?

You need something to write on, or

              Item four:

Open your laptop,

Boot it up.

Does it need to restart?

You’ve been putting off that update

You’ll have to get to that, maybe before making your list

Except that’s item one

So you’ve got a dilemma ahead of you:

You can’t break the order.

It’s carved in iron

Even before you’ve put the words down.

It’s the most frustrating part of being alive

              Item five:

Reassess your priorities

But isn’t that what the list is for?

Back to the pen, then

So now you can fix

               Item six:

Take stock of your needs,

Obligations,

Your wants.

What were they?

Your hollow stomach burns.

Your bursting bladder aches.

The seconds tick-click on but you can’t find a clock

Where’s your phone?

You should find that.

Then all will align,

               Through items seven, eight, nine:

Cry.

This aggravation’s attached to your ankles

Your wrists

Dragging you to the floor

Immobilizing

And it would all be so much easier

If you could just put it all in order

Get everything straight

So let’s make a list.

              Item one:

I hope your holidays are as stress-free as possible!