Lark Beltran

Jigsaw

Each of us
Inhabits an ongoing
Personality-puzzle
Set in the square
Which is the lifetime.

Curriculum
Of ancestral history
Plus labyrinth
Of familial tendencies
Form kaleidoscope
For particular soul-focus.

Shadows fill
The puzzle's lower half.
See the monster-eyes in corners,
The serpent-fangs and spider-mandibles
Representing fears, and look!
Thrusting thirstily upward
Is passionate foliage
Studded with ghost-blossoms
(Should-be's and might-have-been's)
Amid the bolder emblems
Of outward achievement.

Always there are gaps.
Final pieces are not laid
Until we are on the threshold
Of stepping out of the square
And into the round.

03-04/

Lark Beltran among other things, writes poetry.