Fix-it Man

2018-12-31

The actual puzzle that inspired this poem, pieced together by Steve Felt. Notice a handful of cases where almost-fitting pieces have been repurposed to plug gaps. Photographer: me

for Steve

It's part the patient piecing. Yes... And too, the wharf he loved so well, and frame, and glaze, and sunset sky-- I see his stamp upon it all. But most, what sings to me of Steve is what he puzzled out and carved against the dozen stubborn gaps that flawed the fit the day he stopped. Perhaps he knew before he spread the picture out. Perhaps the lacks emerged. Either way, it was his wont to fill life's voids as best he could. He'd done it with a valve that choked, a singer's moods, a dentist's dreams, a sister's babe who needed fathering, folk who languished, cars that broke. So Steve graced gaps as grace he must, scrounging from some lesser box pieces that fit, or almost did, and plied his paint to hide his mark. I wonder if some hand divine removed those pieces so we'd sense, the beauty in that fitting echo from our favorite fix-it man.