We’re Doing Just Fine
JD Miller
“Save money for Europe!” has become
“Get the car fixed.”
And “Make new friends <3” has become
“A new friend.”
As for “practicing patience with each other,”
We’re doing pretty well with that,
And we have had quite a few date nights,
Where we’ve talked about growing old,
Or about how we still haven’t “found our church,”
If a sense of ownership really is
All it’s cracked up to be.
We spent money we should’ve saved on sushi
To celebrate having done such a great job saving,
And we have adopted quite a few plants.
As a counterpoint, two have died,
Both of which were profusely mourned.
We’ve kept the cat alive.
There’s nothing about him on the list
Which is hanging on the fridge behind
Invitations to weddings that we won’t attend.
And I wonder if he has any goals of his own
Or if he would, if he had a fridge to hang them on,
If he didn’t spend his whole day sleeping
Or his whole night waking me up.
I doubt he’d accomplish his goals, either.
I bet he’d make new ones,
And look at the old ones with a sort of tired fondness,
A ‘better luck next time,’ the way you might look
At a scratch-off ticket with three right numbers
And one wrong one.
I’m speculating as someone who’s never gambled,
Except for the time we proudly hung up that list
Like our own Six Commandments,
Handed down by God himself
And pinned in place by two refrigerator magnets
Where we can all see them, and measure ourselves
Against them the way you might compete with a sibling
To see who’s grown more, against the frame
Of the kitchen door, where above all the triumphant scratch marks,
Someone’s written in pencil,
(Or in this case, a pink fine-tipped marker,)
“This Year’s Goals.”