-- PIECES OF THE PUZZLE --

John Herlihy

We see the individual product,

But not the residual parts.

The world as a map before us,

But not how it ends or how it starts.

How many drops does an ocean make?

Who fills the storm with beads of rain?

How many black specks does night create,

Casting a blanket of shadows upon the plain?

How many colors go into the sunset sky,

Drawn from the palette of a rainbow?

Premonitions of darkness that tell us why,

That the night will come and the day will go.

How many individual snowflakes

Go into the pure white blanket of snow?

How many breaths the wind makes,

That whisper hush, hush, across the meadow.

How many footprints make a trail?

Squirrel and rabbit feet leave their mark.

A busy life amid all their travail,

Gone again, lost in the echoes of the lark.

Seconds drip their moment into ever more time,

Making pathways into days, months, years.

Adding up to all the illusions mine,

Amid all the hopes, the dreams, and the fears.

How many cells make up a human body,

To house the beloved soul within?

Photons of light to make anybody, somebody,

To ignite the miracle of humanity, a life to begin.

We only look at the sum of the parts;

We seldom trouble to look therein.

A vast array of little hearts

Go into making a single, solitary grin.

How many pieces of the puzzle are there,

That come together as a unity whole?

It takes a lifetime with no effort to spare

To seed the ground of our everlasting soul.

The final piece of the puzzle holds a key,

With no other place to fit, to go.

The puzzle now a tapestry that is me,

All I ever did and all I will ever know.

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(c) John Herlihy 23 February 2019