Lists

(after Sei Shonagon)

… that bring, deliver            break your nerves, your already fragile

resolve           open doors and deliver asteroids to your table like

Lydia Davis’s ‘could be more comfortable’ or Elton John’s ‘real love

is hard to come by…’           List those!          Love shove    shmove

Homonyms, synonyms, antonyms            what is it about

these funny little things           daisy chains of words, ideas, needs

wants, wishes           even planets concentric themselves in your orbit

Mercury, Venus, Earth          a veritable solar system of galaxies

Who to invite, drinks, the menu, bridges, rivers

Song me Sei Shonagon           your ‘infuriating things,’ ‘splendid things,’

horrid filthy things’ on a Thursday night, and then first morning things:

muesli and tea for breakfast; read book; chat with daughter #3; BLT

for lunch; PBS NewsHour; emails; daughter #2 and grandkids; work in

garden; shopping list; walk the long way to the shop to keep up steps;

make dinner; noodles, bacon, sauce; Rick Stein’s Cornwall

Elton John—it's sad, so sad: a fitting way to end the song and the night

Sei Shonagon asleep on my lap

Rocket Man on my mind

Christopher Konrad is a Western Australian writer and has poems and short stories published in many journals and online. He has received numerous awards, including the Tom Collins Poetry Award (2009 & 2018). He has several books of poetry published and a collection of short stories, The Voyeur (Balboa Press, 2021).