Facing ten thousand puzzle pieces
it was a breeze to see
that for the rest of the afternoon
I had my work cut out for me;
and so I pieced together dunes
wherever I forced them to be.

By noon (the very next week) I got done
and there, clearly older, and tired,
I finally put the last piece in the sun
and then progressed to a puzzle of fire!
A hundred thousand pieces, that one!
(I hope to be done by the time I retire)

I sometimes use a hammer since the pieces never fit
exactly like the picture says they should, but that’s ‘cuz it’s
about as off as any pic could ever try to be
and how it is when I get done is what I’d rather see,
(or so I say to hit the hay before the dawn sometime –
before my skin falls off of me and bears these bones of mine!)

I never really got the hang of puzzles in my youth
and I still haven’t found the knack if I’m to tell the truth
but what shows up when I am through is always just that one
because I smash and cram and shove until I get it done.

A sandstorm falling from the sky because my dunes are proud
to hang around all upside down attached to scattered clouds.
Eyes end up on mouths sometimes and turns out tongues can fly
because the piece that’s in my hand IS GOING TO FIT! I try
to be discrete at first, in case it slips right in
and I admire a gentleman so I press soft again,
but when the corners still won’t budge, nor edges cease to scold
I cut them off with scissors to adjust them to the holes,
and when the angles mock attempts to work a pristine crease
I often find it useful to apply a little grease.

Now, some may brand me ‘cheater’ (and I guess I technically am)
but when I’m in the kitchen at a quarter to five AM
beside four empty mugs of Joe with half a boat to go
(as tired as Santa Claus must feel out dragging his sack through the snow)
wondering what freak painted a boat from port to aft one hue
as if ahead of time she was tipped off or somehow knew,
it’s really very easy to adjust the image to
whatever shows up underneath the stomping of one’s shoe.

Regardless of the tools employed to reach it, or the tricks,
the goal was always just to get the pieces all to fit,
and though my Yogi Berra looks more like a Yogi Bear
and though my ‘Special Yoda’ has entirely too much hair
at least the puzzles stay up on a cataclysmic wall
without too much duct tape required to keep them there at all.