Sunday, September 19, 2004

There’s More to You Than Meets the Eye

There’s more to you than meets the eye
A history of unfinished jigsaw puzzles
An inability to find the corner bits of sky

At first your smile seems friendly, warm, sincere
You like a laugh, diversions, something for the craic
That winning smile is your best friend’s
She thinks she lost it. But you never gave it back.

You walk on stilts, at night, beneath the moon.
A trick you learnt when you were young.
The circus pitched up on the village green.
They wanted you to join.
You didn’t want to leave your mum.

You’re well presented. Well turned out.
You’re neat. You’re smart.
Your clothes are not expensive.
Neither are they cheap.
You wear a sleeve upon your heart.
Sometimes you think your soul is fast asleep.

Once you ran the marathon.
Alone.
Not in an organised event.
Too many people cheering.
And you have an allergy to polystyrene foam
And other people’s sweaty scent.

The blurb says Always meet in public
Which is why I chose to meet you
In the Woolworth’s queue
My first impressions? Ordinary. Nice.
Perhaps a little shy.
You said hello. I said, I bet
There’s more to you than meets the eye.
You said, No
What you see is what you get.

17 comments:

Wastedpapiers said...

Surely the corner bits of jigsaw puzzles are the easy-peasiest to find first? Its the middle bits that are uniformly all the same that i can't find. hazel's Mom and sister like to make jigsaws and leave them on the dining room table under a cloth. the last one we saw was of a farmyard scene and the bits left over were all brown - part of the shadowy recesses of the barn. They spent ages trying to hammer them in but with no avail. Not even a crow-bar would help. In the end i think they sent for Jigsaws Anonymous to come and drag it away to the Unfinished Jigsaw Asylum.

Roger Stevens said...

Well, there you are see? That's poetry for you.
For most people the sky and the corners are the easiest to find.
But if the person in question was having trouble finding the uniformly dull-brown bits in the middle - that would hardly be worth commenting on would it?

Argentyne said...

Beautiful.

Roger Stevens said...

Thank you, Cool Cat

sylviasometimes said...

Well, there is brown and then there is Brown. What might on first appearance seem dull and unworthy of comment, when seen through the eyes of another, might take on a totally different meaning.
Take for example The Cow Pattie...whew! stinky! ugly-mother brown! Ah, says another, it's been used in many lands as a source of heat for homes and boiling water for purification. Very useful! Perfect, says the gardener, for fertilising my plants and veggies. A world of teeming life, says the microbiologist. Of course the cow says...
moo!

Roger Stevens said...

You can beg all you like, Michael.
But I'm not moving on this one, as the animal acrobat said when he mistook a brown rock for a tortoise.

Wastedpapiers said...

Haven't had much chance to get on the mac today as hazels been using it to type up college stuff. I went into town and got some lights for Archie's room. he wants lights that swivel so he can see better whenh he's reading.The handy electrician chap is coming soon to fix them. I almost went to the barbers to get a trim but chickened out. I hate sitting on that plank they have in there!

Ed Giecek said...

Yeah... It's like Neil Young said "There's more to the picture than meets the eye." Course who know'z wot picture and whose eye, and why the bus never came on time, right?

I had something for the craic once, but then never came to pick it up. I called Goodwill charity, but they said they don't take dirty mattress covers. So I said; How'z about some corner bits of sky then?They told me where to stuff my stilts (where the moon don't shine!) and asked wot hoppin to my friendly smile... (sigh). "That'zZ the missing piece of the puzzle," I whispered...

You say hello and I say goodbye.

Roger Stevens said...

Strange. The Goodwill Charity's usually the best place to buy corner bits of sky.

Wastedpapiers said...

Hey, that's all we need - crazy americans clogging up our blogs with their darned stilts and their tootin' mattress's! As if we didn't have enough craict junk of our own!

Wastedpapiers said...

By the by Roger, i love the photo. it looks like you are describing the "poem that got away"!

Ed Giecek said...

"Krazy American'zZ" I resemble that remark!

Wastedpapiers said...

Well there's the amusing wacky kinda crazy and then there's the plain bonkers George W. Bush crazy! I'd put Ed in the former category, if that's any constellation?

Ed Giecek said...

What'z the consolation prize?

Roger Stevens said...

A map of the Universe.

Roger Stevens said...

Sorry, I thought you said constellation prize.

Anonymous said...

Where can you get these maps of the Universe then? I want one!