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THE PUZZLE

At my grandparents' house
in Baltimore, on July 17.

My sister and I put a puzzle together
in front of the television.

All the pieces would not fit.
My father, as usual, was eating

as Grandmom tired to push him away.
My brother took juice in to my grandfather -

sick in bed.
A stillness settled on the house.
A shrill laughter (quite unlike I had ever heard),

came from the other room.
It was my grandmother.
We looked up from our puzzle,

Hoping it was laughter. ..
Then came the ambulance,

with flashing lights and a loud siren.
In swarmed the people with white jackets.
In between confusion and crying,

I saw them take my grandfather away -
Quiet and still on the steel stretcher.
I saw him once more in his coffin.
His lips sewn together,

his eyelids closed, his skin pale and cold.
At my grandmother's house
Ten years have passed,
My father, as usual, is eating

as Grandmom tries to push him away.

The puzzle is still unfinished -
Some pieces have been lost.

Kelly S. Connor

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