Making room with lists

I didn't want my life to be a list

so I made a list with wide open spaces

for the unknowable to show up.

I shoved the "to-do"' items around the perimeters

and put a "done" basket at the bottom 

for my accomplishments to collect.

Making the list is fun - whether to vacuum

or play improv, collect poems or pull weeds,

make a beautiful garden or pay the IRS,

and then there's that space in the middle

where there is nothing, and there is even a 

little piece of paper that says "nothing".

The roots will push their way up through

the openings in the list and reach for the sun.

I will rise with the branches.