jig saw puzzles

jig saw puzzles
3000 pieces of fun
you work for hours
fitting piece by piece
then you discover one or more
pieces are missing

don’t you just hate that—

your heart sinks
certainly those pieces
have to be somewhere close
you look under the table and chair
sweep the floor
pull the cushions off the sofa—
you look everywhere

you leave the puzzle on the table
the empty spaces
stare at you like black holes
wanting to suck you in to fill the void

you expect the missing pieces
to appear magically in some odd place
in your bowl of loose change
or the litter box for instance

finally you sigh—
the missing pieces
were scattered by someone’s tantrum
or a careless toss of the box
or the cat pretended they were
easy prey and carried them
to its kill site—

finally you return the puzzle to its box
thinking those pieces might turn up one day
the pieces that will make the puzzle whole—
so you keep it safe