His Story (A Puzzle Piece)

We snuggle together
inside a cardboard box built
for one thousand pieces.
We are warm and comfortable
and fairly equal in every way.

Occasionally, our limbs
become entangled. These brief
love affairs only tear us apart.
We don’t complete each other
when accidents happen.

When the puzzle master
rummages through us,
we lose our friends as we
are scattered carefully about.
We feel picked over and used.

We often end up in close
proximity to others more like
us in color and shape. We make
new friends and lose some who
appeared other than they were.

When it is time to marry,
we are put in our appropriate
places with our perfect spouses
and life is good. Our families
are rapidly added and we are happy.

Our warmth is slowly returned
as the picture becomes whole.
We form colonies of families
and hold tightly to each other
less we be torn asunder.

Once the master has his fill,
he rapes us of our parents and siblings.
He steals our lives and throws us back
where we came from. He leaves us to find
comfort among strangers once again.