The Mosaic - 2019

Conventional wisdoms abound for all conceivable situations.
Convenient that both they, and their opposites are usually true.
Is a better exemplification required than that of
“Opposites attract” yet “birds of a feather flock together”?
So, let me pick the one that underscores my current point…
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Can there be a trap better than one you lay for yourself?
This has never happened before, a perfect mosaic,
With a void of just the perfect shape and size to fit this piece.
So many coin tosses have yielded the correct results,
So many threads of the tapestry came together just so.
Defying entropy, has stochastic motion constructed
This wonder just for my personal benefit?
Surely, this can’t just be mere chance?
This would be a song not our world if this were true.
So, there is a minor catch of course. A tiny snag.
That spot, that perfect spot, is occupied by another piece.
Looks to fit well enough, as can be judged at a distance.
Its aptitude is irrelevant though; it is not my piece.
So, what would be the sane thing to do?
Walk away. Find another prospective puzzle.
Plenty of fish in the sea as conventional wisdom would have it.
Maybe it won’t be this perfect, but it could be shaped.
Instead, something draws me back,
And I labour to make the hypothetical fit even better,
Or prove to myself how good it would be indeed.
And the more I convince myself,
The harder it is to wrench away.
A combination of sunk cost fallacy and blind optimism,
But no less potent for the lack of subtlety.
And while I curse myself for a fool,
With the image of the mosaic burnt into my head,
I seem to have lost self-control to its perceived potential.
But the scariest thing is, that blinded as I am,
I cannot tell if I have merely woven this tapestry
From strands of fancy with my neuronal loom,
If it is merely my reflection that I cast,
That has little and less to do with you.
Perhaps that fit is not so great after all,
Only the projection makes it seem as such.
Or can both be true at the same time?
Maybe both patterns exist and are in phase,
Constructively interfering as they intertwine.
But no, I think I’m just a tailor cursed
With an abundance of ethereal thread.