Jigsaw Puzzle

I've tried
a thousand times
in one-thousand ways
to put this
one-thousand piece
jig saw puzzle
together
we all know
a picture is worth
a thousand words
but what are the lives
of one-thousand men worth
it's almost as if
the pieces were cut
from the heart of
this country
with no thought
of the final image
one-thousand soldiers
with no picture of the worth
of their lives
just a jig saw puzzle box
in the dark closet
of torn families

R. Reed Nesbitt, 49, has written over 70 poems about the U.S. war against the people of Iraq. Most of them have been published on Poets Against War (PAW). He has written over 1,000 poems and over 50 self-published chapbooks. He wrote Jigsaw Puzzle when the U.S. casualties in Iraq reached 1,000.