1. Bag, paper grocery (for recyclables) (next to large(r) Bin, in kitchen, sitting in halved corrugated fruit (orange) box (otherwise empty (i.e. the half-box is))) next to the refrigerator:

   mail (assorted, junk); milk jug (plastic, quart-sized); newsprint (advertisements, coupons, entire days’ papers (several)); paper (white (unused/used (printed-/written-/scribbled upon)), crumpled and/or torn in accumulating halves).

2. Bin, large(r (than Bin, smaller)) (in kitchen):

   artichoke petals (clipped, scraped (w/teeth (i.e. the scraping is (or, was)))); bottles, plastic, 4 (Gatorade, 24oz., orange (flavored (?)/colored), empty); bottle, plastic (water, crumpled); cans, aluminum (crushed, various); cigarette waste, various bits of (cellophane wrapping, empty packs (Camel, Camel Light) each w/small quantities of tobacco therein); coffee grinds (& used filters); eggshells (6–7); ketchup bottle, empty (Heinz, 16oz.); Kleenex, several (used, crumpled, etc.); mail, junk (advertisements, torn-in-half (now) envelopes w/ small cellophaned window for address); paper, notebook (torn, used (written/scribbled upon), crumpled); tin foil (aluminum, Safeway brand); tomato (old, rotting); towels, paper, assorted; waste, assorted (food, var. consumables, etc.); Zip-loc bags, used, several.

3. Bin, smaller (more of a Can), translucent white plastic (in bedroom):

   beads (plastic, transparent-yellow, sort of Mardi Gras-style); bottle, glass (beer, 24oz. (price: $3.99)); bottle, plastic (Gatorade, 24oz., orange (see above); card, greeting (birthday, signed); condoms (4–5) (Trojan, used, tied (whatever), w/but outside (now) of wrapper); envelope (red, from greeting card, addressed, stamped, return-addressed); hair (brunette, female (mostly), picked off hairbrush, balled-up); ink-pen, dry; Kleenex, assorted; paper (computer printouts (e-mail (old, assorted)), forms (tax, medical, insurance, etc.), scribbled notes, aborted short-stories &c.); pencil shavings; tampon (Tampax, used, wrapped in Kleenex); wrappers, foil candy (Butterfinger, Snickers, Milky Way, Nestle’s Crunch).

4. Can, small (see #3 for descr.) (in bathroom):

   condom (1), used (tied &c.); hair (see #3); Kleenex, crumpled; Tampax, more, wrapped; Q-tips, used.

Wednesday. Ideas: something about death; a litany of deaths; deaths of various causes and nature; the inevitability of death; the horror of death; the beauty of death. Themes: the inevitability of death. The fundamental human compulsion to rationalize/deconstruct and therefore subjugate Death. The ineluctable failure of man to thusly conquer death the subsequent (though still, like, antecedent) fear of death the consequent plight of (“post”-?) modern (self-conscious) man.

Things that can die, categorized and listed, wherever possible, alphabetically:

1. Anything living
   1. Animals
      1. Humans
         1. Known (to one)
            1. acquaintances (work, neighbors, “fellow citizens” (seen from time to tim at grocery store, bank, post-office, gas station), et al.)
            2. family (children, spouse/partner, siblings, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, et al.)
            3. friends (long-lost (preschool, elementary school, high school, college, graduate school, other), good, occasional, best, or else fair-weather, perhaps with-benefits, &c.)
         2. Not known (to one)
            1. celebrities
            2. foreigners (“The Exotic Other,” et al.)
            3. those about whom one reads (non-celebrity, literary characters (??))
            4. strangers (tautological)
      2. Pets (domesticated)
         1. birds (parrots, etc.)
         2. cats (and/or kittens)
         3. dogs (and/or puppies)
         4. fish (saltwater, freshwater)
         5. horses
         6. pot-belly pigs (see I.A.1.b.ii)
         7. reptiles (snakes, lizards (chameleons, skinks, iguanas, geckos, salamanders?), turtles? frogs?)
         8. rodents (rats, mice, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, rabbits?, opossums??)
         9. other (unique/pretty much (or at least mostly) unheard-of (as pets): alligators, eels, hedgehogs, chinchillas?, hyenas, zebras?)
      3. Non-human, non–pet type animals (undomesticated) (vast, self-explanatory)
   2. Plants
      1. Domesticated (?; i.e. in-house, purchased, gardened, planned, etc.)
         1. ferns
         2. Flowers
            1. botanicals, herbs (separate categories?)
            2. indoor
            3. outdoor
         3. succulents
         4. trees
         5. waterless (Comes in a plastic pot. Good for bathrooms, esp. top of toilet tank.)
      2. Natural (in nature, i.e. naturally occurring, viz.:)
         1. ferns
         2. flowers
         3. trees
         4. large expanses (fields, meadows, thickets?)
   3. amoebas, assorted microorganisms, etc. (vast & myriad)
2. Anything metaphorically linkable to death
   1. ideals
   2. love/relationships
   3. etc.

Living things (a few) that might die for which humans would feel the most remorse, loss, grief, etc. (Listed in increasing order of consequent grief &c. Plausible explanations therefor given parenthetically.)

1. trees (bad soil, chemicals etc.)
2. snakes, pet (in basement?, freezing (i.e. the snake))
3. herb gardens³ (over-watering, under-watering)
4. gerbils & white mice, salamander (improper use/care (“or lack thereof”)—transported for length of time in plastic bag)
5. tropical fish (doesn’t take much here; change in water temperature, suggestive stare of owner/caretaker, whatever)
6. puppy (distemper, lack of medical attention (shots))
7. adopted mail-order foreign orphan (cause of death practically inexplicable unless stated/alluded to in said orphan’s documentation, which would for all intents and purposes cause said orphan to be (most) likely rejected by would-be adopters in the first place)
8. adults (heart attack, suicide, drowning, car accident, stroke, murder)
9. the elderly⁴ (old age—not callus; Reality.)
10. children (play on/around unsafe equipment, et al. Whatever.)

Tuesday. The opossum is gone. Dead. “We don’t like it,” the children say. “That’s sound,” the adults say. “It’s a bloody shame!” the children say. “It is,” the adults agree. Writing this down on separate papers. Transcribing. A mentally construed sexual encounter: not perverted. Not erotic. Not exactly psychological; not selfish. For the story. For symmetry. Story begins with death, ends with sex. Like existence (human. But reversed.). The children ask for said symmetry. The adults approach sex like death. Story culminates now climactically with wild cheering. Screaming. Sexual ecstasy, etc. Death is erased. Published piece = thinly (?) veiled (?) authorial crack at immortality, a something left behind, the creation of a legacy. The children run wildly in circles, holding said piece up over their heads, screaming and laughing at author’s funeral. “He’s here!” they cheer. “Here he is! He’s not gone at all! He’s right here!” They shout these things and glance up intermittently at the books they hold in their hands. The adults shake their heads, incensed. “Shush,” someone says. “Shush,” but the cheering is too loud.
     Eventually the children tire and return to their seats. The priest raises his arms and the people stand and bow their heads.

Notes:

1. Concerning Donald Barthelme’s “The School” from Amateurs. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1976.

2. pos•sum

   n. Chiefly Southern U.S.

   An opossum^2b.

   This despite the former being the seemingly preferred version. Probable explanation: the process of aphesis (in which an unstressed syllable preceding a stressed syllable at the beginning of a word is dropped e.g. people who say ’round instead of around).

   2b. o•pos•sum

   n. pl. opossum or o•pos•sums

   1. Any of various nocturnal, usually arboreal marsupials of the family Didelphidae, especially Didelphis marsupialis of the Western Hemisphere, having a thick coat of hair, a long snout, and a long prehensile tail.
   2. Any of several similar marsupials of Australia belonging to the family Phalangeridae.

3. Consider:
   1. Would (the loss of) a mere herb garden truly arouse in someone more remorse/grief than would (the loss of) a snake?
   2. Would (the loss of) a mere herb garden truly arouse in someone any real remorse whatsoever anyway?
   3. Ditto a snake?
4. #8 & #9 are admittedly arguable. The shame and loss of potentiality in the death of a child is indisputable, yet upon whom does society place a greater deal of value, an adult or an elderly person? An adult, like a child, still possesses potential for social contribution, though here (vs. w/ a child) it is more kinetic (? - active? (vs. potential)) contribution, whereas the elderly are more-so regarded as “wise” and are valued for their social in- (/, really, hind-) sight. The death of an adult usu. catches one off-guard, though this shouldn’t necessarily be the case; adults face daily things like freeways, stress- (work-) induced heart attacks, murderers, etc., thus “it should come as no surprise” when one (adult) falls victim to some sort of fatal circumstance or another. Death of the elderly, on the other hand, results most usu. in mourning; we tried so hard. We spent so much time (sure—money, too. Sure, we spent a good deal of money) trying to sustain you. Why have you left us? Then: of course. (Though now it’s too late.) And: why couldn’t we have thought of this before?