puzzle pieces

giving myself to you
was like giving you pieces of my puzzle so you could finish yours
but now you’re gone and my work of art is incomplete
not because you took it or because i wasn’t whole before
but because I was whole before you and I gave you pieces of me carelessly
naive of me to think you’d give as many pieces of you back
I didn’t realize how much you had taken until I looked down and saw I had nothing
I still had puzzle pieces but the they didn’t make sense anymore
suddenly I couldn’t recognize what I was trying to complete in the first place
but you were a complete work of art and you’d finally finished your masterpiece
I think you left because you didn’t need me anymore,
because I had given you so much that I had nothing left
so I threw out the puzzle as a whole, I lost myself and you
I was a blank slate and I began to conjure up something i’d be proud of
something beautiful enough for you to want to come back
but along the way I realized I wanted this new work of art all to myself
I no longer wanted you to come back and take everything i’d worked so hard on
for once I was proud and I was complete
no one was taking pieces of me but they were adding things I didn’t know I needed
in my new puzzle I was not a flower but a garden full of them that have yet to bloom
I am nothing like I was before but I am so much more now
today you walk around now with pieces of me that I have learned to let go of
I used to get upset, that everyone was now able to admire the puzzle I put effort into completing
and I was left with nothing but miscellaneous pieces
but I know you have to let go of small things in order to create something bigger
i’m not done growing and I don’t think I ever will be,
I will continue adding pieces to this puzzle and it will grow into something beautiful
not for you to admire, but for me.