VOICES OF DAVIDSON

Puzzle

Dump puzzle pieces across the table—

a study in expectations. Turn each piece face up;

study the shapes, colors. Find the corners

and begin. Begin somewhere. Begin.

The picture on the box: a neighborhood with cars,

tangles of blackberries, a run-over dog,

a hearse in a driveway up the street,

a child with a baby on his back and an old woman

sitting by her window, at a table.

Over her house hot-air balloons

fill the sky, hang above her;

for all she knows they could be

bombs. But not today. No clouds, no

shadows, just bright balloons. She isn’t thinking of the sky;

she’s putting a puzzle together. So many pieces.

Does she even have them all?

Acknowledgement: Cortland Review