Eliza Laycock says she writes most of her poetry in her head
before putting pen to paper. For this poem, Eliza says she "came up with the
puzzle metaphor one day and over a few weeks the poem sort of formed in my
head." When her English teacher asked the class to write for seven minutes,
Eliza says she "already had the whole poem, I just needed to write it down,"
and the result was "Maybe." Eliza, of Hanover, New
Hampshire, is in 8th grade at Richmond Middle
School.
I am like a jigsaw puzzle.
My pieces are scattered all around where no one
seems to be able to find them.
Maybe they don’t have the time to look for them.
Or maybe they just don’t care what the completed
thing looks like.
But maybe there’s someone out there that’s getting
close to solving it.
Maybe they’re putting all the little bits and
pieces that make up my life together.
I hope there’s someone.
Someone that cares enough about me to really try
and understand who I am.
But maybe I’m the one that’s holding them back.
Maybe I don’t want anyone to know everything
about me.
And maybe that’s because I don’t trust anyone
with my life in their hands.
I feel the need to have control of my
life.
But maybe there will be someone later on that I
can trust with my life.
Someone that breaks down all my walls and I can
just give all the puzzle pieces to them.
And then it’s up to them.
They can choose whether or not to put all of the
pieces together and try to make sense of them.
I hope they care enough about me to at least try
and complete the puzzle.