“Important things I keep forgetting to do”

The keys on the counter, their glimmer ignored,  
A note on the fridge that says, “Buy milk, then more—”  
My to-do list is lengthy, and yet with a laugh,  
I stroll down the hall, still forgetting my scarf.

Birthday cards lying in half-written stacks,  
Recycle the junk mail—yet paper still backs  
Up by the door, begging, pleading for flight,  
I promise I’ll take it—just not all tonight.

The plants by the window with leaves drooping low,  
I vow every morning, “Today you will grow!”  
Yet dusk stumbles in and their thirst goes unslain,  
Perhaps they forgive my forgetful refrain.

That email’s unwritten, the laundry undone,  
I fill up appointments, erase every one;  
A dentist, a meeting, a library fee—  
Somewhere in my memory, they’re chasing me.

And, oh, to call Grandma—her laugh, her warm cheer,  
The calendar prompts me, her birthday draws near.  
I scribble reminders in digital ink,  
Yet somehow, they vanish much faster than I think.

Still, amid the undone and the things overdue,  
I uncover small joys in the chaos I rue:  
Forgetting is proof, as the days tumble through,  
Of all the full living I’m trying to do.

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