Written for Reena’s Xploration Challenge.
Reena asks us to respond to one of the
prompts offered by her. I have chosen
Prompt 1: Missing Pieces*.
The city woke divided down its spine:
the bakery had no bread but kept the sign,
the bridge reached halfway out and dropped its line,
and half the trains ran nowhere anymore.
We traded quarter-truths across the street,
“I meant….” “You said….” “I never….,” incomplete,
and I recalled my mother’s hands, her feet,
but not her face, and not the dress she wore.
Then, clearing out a drawer, I found a seam,
a hairline crack of light, a draft, a gleam,
and through it, like an island in a dream,
I saw my missing pieces on a shore.
They’d built a country out of what we’d lost:
the far half of the bridge, her face, the cost
of every finished sentence. I could have crossed.
I watched them laughing, and I shut the door.
NAR©2026
Nancy’s Notes: *Missing Pieces: One morning, the world breaks into fractions. Cities split into halves, conversations become quarter-truths, and people can only remember pieces of their lives. Your protagonist discovers that the missing pieces haven’t vanished; they’ve gone somewhere else.
This is “Everything In Its Right Place” by Radiohead
Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated, and may not be used without permission. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.
