Puzzle

I once made a puzzle

With 10,000 pieces.

 

Six painstaking months 

Searching

Piece by piece

Day by day

To build a masterpiece

Spread over two card tables.

When it was done

There was a missing piece.

An empty hole

Right in the middle of the Matterhorn

Where the wind was blowing

And there was nothing

Nothing

That could could be done about it.

 

I was a kid

I cried bitter tears of

Frustration

Anger

Anguish

Agony...

Not because of the puzzle.

I wept because

The wind had been blowing

Through the hole in me

For as long as I could remember

 

And the missing piece

Was nowhere to be found.

Author's Note

Reviews are much appreciated. Please be honest. I can take it.

Reviews

[Lorry]

Again, I have to start with the wow and work my way back. You certainly have a talent of pointing the reader in one direction, then pulling a rabbit out of the hat in front of our very eyes. I actually thought "aw man, that sucks", about the missing jigsaw piece, until the realisation that we all have that one piece missing, letting the wind blow through us and making us less aerodynamic than life should be.
I have a feeling I will be repeating this again, but superb write my friend.

[Chip Murison]

Thanks for your review Nemo. I really appreciate it. :-)

[Wolf's Dark Song]

Impressive poem. I enjoyed. It is sad. I felt the pain. We all have missing pieces in us, and yes, they seem to be no where to be found. How many of us really feel whole?

[Chip Murison]

Thanks a lot Wolf. I really appreciate your thoughts.
Yes- We are all in the same boat. And its painful. In Buddhism they call it dukka which refers to the fundamental unsatisfactoriness and painfulness of life. This is actually a memory of mine but it speaks to a more fundamental truth for everyone.
In fact, that is why we are all upset by the negative things that happen to us in life. They trigger this fundamental feeling of the "missing piece" which really is nowhere to be found.

[Wolf's Dark Song]

You are most welcome. Thanks for the info, I found it intersecting.

[Jamie]

I'm going to keep reviewing your pieces because I enjoy them; I apologize, but you're going to have to deal with me continuing to be a creep. :)

"Anger
Anguish
Agony...
Not because of the puzzle.

...Through the whole in me
For as long as I could remember

And the missing piece
Was nowhere to be found."

I'm going to have to continue to agree with the reviews below and say fantastic imagery.

...But because I like Freudian psychoanalysis as much as I do, I have to bring in the psychology. I can't remember what I did five minutes ago, but I can remember half what what you shared in what your damn bio without looking again. TF? .__.

Regardless, the missing piece, the hole in you—it mentioned something of your parents being absent? Even as a child, you felt as if a piece of you was missing. That piece maybe in the center, that hole in your heart where you lack that attention a child needs for proper development [I apologize; I just took a developmental psychology exam today, and it relied heavily on Piaget's Model. It didn't have much t do with anything fun like... Costa and McCrae's, I believe, so I'm clawing at something more interesting from that abominable class].

Again, it's nearly 03:00 here, and I have been awake for 40 hours due to by brain chemistry being a dick, bu so my interpretations are quite possible wrong, but I always find those pieces of you that you've shared in your bio in your work. As you've shared in your reviews of my work, you're a fan of the gritty, brutally honest, face-slapping poetry [ditto on that one], which is what you end to write. You're not ambiguous about anything. You're straight up about it while intertwining some very vivid imagery within it.

Wise sage, I will continue to look to your poetry to advice, being the young, naive near-22 year old I am. ;33

Fantastic as always. I'd tell you if could find anything to correct, but I never can.

[Chip Murison]

Thanks Elendarin. The absentee parents didn't help my situation as a child and neither did the abusive nannies or never having friends because my family was always moving. Like they say in New York - Watareyagunnado. On the bright side though it gave me plenty to write about. :-)

[Kelly Scheppers]

I never took to puzzles. They always fascinated me, as to what to do with them after they had been put together. Somehow, putting all the pieces back in the box defeated the purpose of doing it in the first place. However, I really liked the thought process that went into this. Good job, Chip!

[Chip Murison]

Thanks for the review Kelly. I lost my taste for puzzles for the same reason. :-)

[EvaThornburn]

Love it, Your writes are always entertaining. I'll keep reading them as long as you keep writing. Eva

[Chip Murison]

Thanks Eva! :-)
I will keep writing then.

[Karmee]

wept because
The wind had been blowing
Through the hole in me
For as long as I could remember

Loved this part, this is a wonderful write, nice imagery as well

[Chip Murison]

Thanks. I really appreciate your feedback.