searching through her father’s old things.
“A puzzle! Grandma, can we do it?”
We dumped a thousand pieces
on a table, sorting through the colors,
lining straight edges to form a frame.
“So many pieces, Grandma.
Do you think we’ll ever finish?”
“Maybe.” I shrugged, pressing
a small cardboard shape of solid blue
into the socket of a matching shape.
And thinking how I’ve spent
hours, days, years putting together
a life with thousands of jagged parts
I’ve had to turn again and again
before they snapped into place.
Jacqueline Jules is the author of Manna in the Morning (Kelsay Books, 2021), Itzhak Perlman's Broken String (winner of the 2016 Helen Kay Chapbook Prize from Evening Street Press), and Smoke at the Pentagon: Poems to Remember (Bushel & Peck, 2023). Her poetry has appeared in over 100 publications. For more information visit www.jacquelinejules.com.
Do you think we’ll ever finish?”
“Maybe.” I shrugged, pressing
a small cardboard shape of solid blue
into the socket of a matching shape.
And thinking how I’ve spent
hours, days, years putting together
a life with thousands of jagged parts
I’ve had to turn again and again
before they snapped into place.
Jacqueline Jules is the author of Manna in the Morning (Kelsay Books, 2021), Itzhak Perlman's Broken String (winner of the 2016 Helen Kay Chapbook Prize from Evening Street Press), and Smoke at the Pentagon: Poems to Remember (Bushel & Peck, 2023). Her poetry has appeared in over 100 publications. For more information visit www.jacquelinejules.com.
Spot on, thank you!
ReplyDelete“a life with thousands of jagged parts
I’ve had to turn again and again
before they snapped into place.”