Puzzle Pandemic

By Mariya Taher, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

Puzzles. Cardboard. A dark piece. A white piece. Absence of color. All color. The rainbow. I pick up a piece unsure where it belongs. Examine the contours. Search for the pieces with flat edges. Careful not to bend or force them together. My foundation. The frame of my experience. Within it, I can make sense of a thousand different pieces— little sources of information, piece by piece, bit by bit, until the full picture emerges. Comprehension dawns. A sunset along a marsh. Hues of strawberries, mangoes, peaches, apricots crossing through the sky. A moment of accomplishment. Completion. 

So far from where we are in this pandemic. 

I concentrate. Turn on NPR. Scroll through my newsfeed. Open news article after news article. The John Hopkins coronavirus map. Day by Day. The pieces forming, coming together. So far still to go. Social Distancing our framing. Boundaries created. A world in turmoil. The picture, blurry in my mind. Waiting for completion. 

Unsure when it will come.

I sit. 

I wait. 

The days blur, piece by piece, bit by bit. I search. We search. A cure somewhere far on that horizon. More pieces to build. More pieces to match. An unsolvable puzzle. Only for now.