No need to say what is already known

by Jen Schneider

 
Her list is as mundane as any other, perhaps more so if I dare so say. No need to alert her. Please, don’t. She already knows.
 
The chair and the computer call, yet she does not answer. Auto-set to voicemail, along with everyone else. We all have our reasons. Her, too. Some reasons are more mundane than others. Hers, too. I hear not her fingers tap, but her voice totter then trail. They reached the end of the ABC book and the beginning of naptime. I hope she dreams. 
 
Her list is as mundane as any other.
 
Air conditioner duct is full
Baby’s diaper, too
Cat needs to go out
Dog needs to come in
Everyone needs something
Fix-ins for a square dinner
Gather bills, garner comrades for coin scavenger hunt, gabble incessantly
Hide chocolate, hide hunger
Ice boy’s scraped knee
Justify curfew to oldest girl
Kiss girl’s bruised elbow
Lecture roommate, settle laundry disputes
Make beds first, bail second, biscuits third 
Nurture - oldest boy, youngest girl, middle children, dog, cat, roommate, beau, neighbor, more
Oops, stop rambling
Poop, pee. Clean it, too. Sorry, she needs to mind her Ps and Qs 
Quiet tiny voices in and outside her head
Remind oldest boy to return teacher’s call
Stir rice, squeeze everything
Turn burgers
Unveil chore chart
Validate something
Whisk butter, withstand everything
X out thoughts bubbling in mind
Yell, loud. Cars approach
Zipper all. Turn and go


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Jen Schneider is an educator, attorney, and writer. She lives, writes, and works in small spaces throughout Philadelphia. Recent work appears in The Popular Culture Studies Journal, Toho Journal, The New Verse News, Zingara Poetry Review, Streetlight Magazine, Chaleur Magazine, LSE Review of Books, and other literary and scholarly journals.