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My thanks to Amie for allowing me to include one of her poems on Balsamic Vignette.

How to end things

November 2007 by Amie Saramelkonian

There's always far too much to do -
a thousand thoughts collide inside my head -
it's not just where to start, but how to end
 
when task-list items seethe and breed like vermin;
they scrabble through the drawers at 4 a.m.
There's always far too much to do...
 
...for weeks, months, years I meant to phone my mum.  And now
she's dead.  And plants unwatered, cats unfed.
But where to start?  And how to end it?
 
Slip through a wormhole to another time,
another planet, far from the cries of
"There's always far too much to do"?
 
I've lost my place, my way, my mind -
whole days are wasted trying to decide
just where to start, and how to end
 
these fruitless ruminations.  Five tercets
and a quatrain is pure self-indulgence; still I sigh
"There's just too much to do!  Where should I start?"
So this is where I'll have to end it.