some RST paragraphs are written out like lists

paragraphs starting with the same prefix of a list will have the semantics of a list when written by pandoc, and can be represented as paragraphs by escaping the starting character. from the doc:

If a single-line paragraph begins with text identical to an enumerator ("A.", "1.", "(b)", "I)", etc.), the first character will have to be escaped in order to have the line parsed as an ordinary paragraph:

\A. Einstein was a really smart dude.