Next on the list

I've already mentioned that Martin likes lists. He writes really good ones. His life is run by his to do list. It's an old fashioned piece of paper that he keeps in his back pocket. In the morning he looks at it to see what to do. When he's done something he crosses them off. New things to do get added. The next day, he begins by writing the things to do from the day before that didn't get done on a new list.

I admire his to do list.

Deb went on a management course and she came back with a handout. It contained diferent management styles. She asked me to identify my own. Easy - disorganised.

My to do list has only one item on it - start a to do list.

Anyway, a couple of nights ago Mark, his partner Nikki and I went to see Martin. Mark read some poetry. Yes, I know it sounds pretentious, but it's nice to talk intelligently once in a while, and it wasn't his own work.

One of the poems was in the form of a list - it was an inventory of war; the title of the poem was, "An inventory of war." Even the titles of lists are list-like.

The debate was; can a list be a poem. We all agreed that they can be poetic, but we could not agree that they could be poems.

Here is a list. It is/is not (delete as applicable) a poem:

C
Consume
Eat
Consumed
Be eaten
Guilty
Pleasure
Guilt
Food
Pleasure
Guilt
Consumption
Disease
TB
Disease
Consumption
Consumer
Shopper
Commercial
Advert
Sold
to the highest bidder
Profit
Loss
Consumption
Disease
Loss