The Missing Pieces
Colin Dardis
i.
life’s a jigsaw
no picture on container
to tell where pieces go
all you can do
is slot in each day as it comes
and hope that it builds
to something
resembling a life.
ii.
observe:
you’re a spy in your own land
where memories are microfilm
and there’s double agents
everywhere
ready to profiteer over you
r two cents
your codename:
One.
iii.
No one comes to hand
to hand you that envelope
telling you your future;
cannot foresee
if you even got out alive
all the soothsayers
and mystics
blow hard, yet
no oxygen
in their kiss
iv.
sometimes you’re cut string
sometimes you’re the knot between
two other lives:
vital disturbance
along otherwise rectilinear roads
undeviating
until they get to you
through others, we find
ourselves:
a speed bump
a stop sign a fork
a limit a direction a destination
YIELD.
v.
house of schisms
house of whispers
house of jubilant lovers
house of jealous spies
house of mystery to all but one
house of only exit signs
house of foreboding
house of bestial claim
house of the higher conscience
house of missing brick
house of death camp renegades
house of the holies
house of holes
house of darkness
house of light
house of (muscle) tone
house of rigidity
house of a thousand fingers typing as one
house of counterpoint
house of thesis, antithesis, synthesis
vi.
the truth is: everyone kills
with their little acts of observation
changing quantum levels
of unknown worlds,
create fragmentations
unities
immeasurable within
mere organic scale
our words: energy
our eyes: a dish
our minds: everything
and yet
so much nothing to mourn
vii.
nothing to mourn
ultimate freedom
ultimate futility
find meaning
go forth
and multi play
Colin Dardis is a neurodivergent poet, editor and sound artist, based in Northern Ireland. His latest collection is Endless Flower (Rancid Idols Productions, 2021). Colin Dardis is online at colindardispoet.co.uk.