Cold and Grey: a Jigsaw Day

Jigsaw puzzles and story books -
what are they for?
The complete picture, the happy ending,
the knowing for sure,
unlike our own lives, long or short,
where some piece will always be missing,
and the last page torn.

© Celia Warren 2016

Apologies for the slightly maudlin tone of my poem. Am feeling nostalgic rather than sad - perhaps exacerbated by my recent family-tree research.

My mother and I used to do jigsaws together when I was a child, and in her last years of life, we did so again (and again). She had a habit of writing on the bottom of the box the date and, sometimes, what the puzzle was like to do. "Very, very satisfying!", "Trees very hard but worth it!", "Super - very interlocking!" - that kind of thing. So I know from the notes on the bottom of this 500-piece jigsaw that we did it together in August 2009. Normally, she'd return to do puzzles again and again. But with Parkinson's Disease taking an ever stronger hold, she never returned to this one. So I kind of hope she was with me in some way as I enjoyed doing it this weekend.

No pieces missing from this puzzle - you can see the complete picture "March Past" in my Extra - and observe what fun shapes are included in the cut.