| A Missing Piece |
opal
|
She imagined their life together | 1 |
as a 4,000 piece cardboard jigsaw: | 2 |
A dissected map in which they walked, sat, kissed. | 3 |
His dark hued shapes gave substance to her shadow; | 4 |
when he talked, she found the smooth edges | 5 |
of her voice; when he joked she found the shades | 6 |
of her smile and when he cooked, | 7 |
she found irregular edges of appetite | 8 |
smoothed. | 9 |
| |
She was surprised how much | 10 |
she embraced puzzling and sometimes sat | 11 |
late into the night to discover an interlocking | 12 |
match, but there was always a piece missing. | 13 |
She never felt able to cry out, triumphant, | 14 |
in the small hours ‘I’ve done it.’ | 15 |
and as she continued night after night, | 16 |
a third figure appeared amongst fragmented images, | 17 |
| |
often just a glimpse of fleeting dress or hair or flesh | 18 |
then gradually more substantial: a hazel eye, | 19 |
a knowing look, the sensuous curve of a lip. | 20 |
One night she realised there was only | 21 |
one scene of their puzzle in which she still played | 22 |
a part. | 23 |
| |
A forlorn figure who watched him walk away | 24 |
and then she knew why difficult jigsaws have | 25 |
no guide picture on the box. It is so their true subject | 26 |
can remain a mystery until final shapes | 27 |
are fitted | 28 |
into | 29 |
place. | 30 |
(comment on this poem) |