Reach into the box
Pulled out from beneath your bed
Desire mixes with desperation
As you search for something specific
A moment, a day, a year, a lifetime
Not quite clear as crystal
Not anymore
You have taken it out 
Too many times now

Surface once smooth and pristine
Now worn down 
Covered in fingerprints
Small fractures surround the glass
Blanketed in a layer of fog
Murkier than you remember
Still, you peer through

Piece the puzzle together
Not sure what the finished image will be
Turning the pieces over and over between fingertips
Painting the picture as you put it together

Sometimes you need others
To bring their pieces 
But when you try to put everything together
It never ends up a perfect square

Sometimes there are extra branches
Expanding past the original shape
Sometimes there are gaps
Places where no one's pieces quite add up
Pieces no one can find 

Maybe they fell under the table
Lost in a long forgotten toy chest
Gathering dust in the back of the closet
Or pushed back under the bed
Never to be seen again

Memory is easily muddled
The picture is blurry
A brushstroke misplaced 
The color not quite right
Overlapped images
Areas with none at all

Someday these will expand
And spread 
And the color will fade
And the image will be forgotten
And all that will be left, are
blanks.