It's election time. If politicians don't have to make sense, then neither do I.

Sure, the White Stripes can do it:

Waking up for breakfast
Burning matches
Talking quickly
Breaking baubles
Throwing garbage
Drinking soda
Looking happy
Taking pictures
So completely stupid
Just go away

from "There's No Home For You Here"

Wallace Stevens, too:

XVII
Pass through the door and through the walls,
Those bearing balsam, its field fragrance,
Pine-figures bringing sleep to sleep.

from "Variations on a Summer Day"

Show-offs

I want my own lists as meaningful and active as this. Lists have worked their weaselly way into my heart. My grocery list wouldn't be the same if it wasn't a collection of one-word indicators, so telling of the essence of this term the "list". The brevity implied here sets the "list" apart from the "memo" or "letter" or -- horror-of-horrors -- the "manual", "treatise" or "constitution".

Itemization, enumeration, collection.
Lists serve many functions. Perhaps lists are social creatures. They translate well, allowing anyone to add on to them in the manner in which they began. The To-Do list, for instance. Sure, "clean the storm drain" works, but isn't "buy milk" much more approachable? You'd be much more inclined to add " Saran Wrap" after the latter, rather than the former. Storm drains are overrated, anyway.

If I could stump for Lists' campaign, I would.