Friday 29 May 2020

Jigsaw Puzzle by Andrew Shephard


Jigsaw Puzzle

Your world is cut in a hundred pieces
panorama shattered, jumbled shapes
with no guide to reassembly.

‘I can never be happy again,’ you say,
binning paper plates of platitudes.

‘You are changed forever,’ I say,
but quietly add
(not expecting you to hear)
‘there can be a day, some years away,
when you will see a path to cross
from dark to light,
if you permit the passage to occur.’

You are right to deny it.
Everything you feel is right.

Rightly angry, you ask me straight.
I pause.
‘Yes…
That surprising moment came to me
like a seagull in flight
or a rolling headland against blue sea
as I watched gentle junior fingers
triumphantly position
the final wonky piece of sky
into a bright new landscape.’

3 comments:

  1. I found this a very comforting poem. The central metaphor is certainly fitting, considering how many of us are passing lockdown time with 1000+ piece jigsaws. Thanks, Andrew.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very thoughtful, Andrew, just right for the times. Vivien

    ReplyDelete
  3. If I close my eyes, I see someone putting jigsaw pieces into the actual sky.

    ReplyDelete