I watched a little girl at play
Surrounded by her toys
Her hands engrossed with this and that
Her eyes danced with joy.
I watched mesmerized as she soaked
In colours, shapes, odd things...
And presently I found her gaze
Fall upon a puzzle game.
She picked it up and lay the pieces
All around the place.
And one by one she put them down
In their particular place.
I watched the pieces slowly grow
To become one big whole.
But lo! My girl was now perturbed
For some pieces could not be found.
She searched for them high and low
Turned everything upside down
But there was no finding them
They had just vanished in thin air.
My heart was torn as I heard her cry
She cried inconsolably.
“My puzzle... someone robbed those pieces!”
“I won’t be able to complete it!”
I tried to calm her down saying,
“Don’t worry I’ll get you another one.”
She said, “No! This was my puzzle...
I don’t want any other one!”
She cried herself to sleep that night
I hoped that she’d forget
The pain, the loss and missing pieces
And play some other game.
While I was musing over her loss
My mind threw me a stare
It smirked and asked me, “Don’t you know
The pain of missing pieces?”
I reeled from shock as the blow hit me
I realized with pain
My life too had missing pieces...
Someone robbed and took away!
I braced myself to hold back tears
For in vain I had tried and tried
To fill the gaps, the loss, the void
While my heart just bled and sighed.
My little girl, my prayer for you
Is that you would never know
The pain of missing pieces
In the lonely game called life.
