Jigsaw
is the tool you use to make one.
Such a human hobby, cutting up the picture
just so that, on a bored, dark winter evening,
we sit down to make the pieces fit again!
But when it’s finished there are always cracks.
You have to back away and keep your distance
to cherish the illusion it’s made seamless.
We are among
the things we can engineer to take apart
with incisive, nonchalant and casual tools,
thinking that concentration and desire
and a little doctoring can make them whole.
About the Author
Jennifer M Phillips is a bi-national immigrant, painter, gardener, Bonsai-grower. Her chapbooks: Sitting Safe In the Theatre of Electricity (i-blurb.com, 2020) and A Song of Ascents (Orchard Street Press, 2022). A poem is like a little brass pan to carry fire’s coals through the winter weather, and so she writes.
About the Artist
“There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle. Deepak Chopra” by Kate Ter Haar is licensed under CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/?ref=openverse.