The woman I met
at the bus stop
was standing
staring
making notes
and trying to photograph us
so I asked

“What are you doing?”

She told me that
she was putting faces
to names, and
that life is a jigsaw

I didn’t understand,
and she pulled out a
crumpled piece of paper

“Look at this”, she said

It was a cv
It wasn’t mine

“I work in personnel and
I’ve got the CVs of
all of the people who apply”

I asked her why, and she said
that she was
collecting lives

and then the bus came
she didn’t get on
but I saw her, from the window
attaching more faces to names
regardless of fit

life’s a puzzle, see
but if you cheat you can make it work