Completion

my legs are 42 inches from hip to heel...
each...
so when I wrap them around you,
my thick stems
have the ability to cover you like kudzu on oak trees...
cover you...
entirely.

and that's how you like it, right?
entirely?

you don't want just pieces of me.
you want me, entirely

Unfortunately for me
and for you
all I have are pieces.

I have the skeletal ones
the edge pieces
the ones with which puzzle afficionados commence their journey

I am missing some, though
some pieces of me I foolishly discarded.
I didn't know then that I would need all the pieces
I never had instructions
I thought they were excess
like bonus buttons on brand-new blouses

It wasn't until you asked to see me
entirely
that I found I wasn't whole
It wasn't until I met you
or rather met pieces of you
that I found my construction to be
unacceptable
incomplete
definitely not me in my entirety

You have exposed my imperfections
my flaws
my holes
And yet, knowing I am not whole
you still require me to show you myself
entirely

And it wouldn't be such an unfair request
except that
you...
you have them.

my angels slipped them into your pockets
so I don't fault you
you had no idea
you had no idea that you hold the pieces
that would complete me

so I ask you now
kindly
to return to me what will finish me
so that I can show you myself
just the way you like it
whole
full
complete

entirely