for my dad the jigsaw is always there

he starts with edges for the border line

engrossed in giving the picture meaning

filling featureless sky the hardest part

mental rotation the key to the code

an activity that passes the time

for my mother, when she has the time

a crossword will occupy her there

extracting a word from a clue in code

trying to intersect a completed line

a small pleasure in working out each part

in discovering words through their meaning

logic, reason give Sudoku meaning

working out rules to apply every time

no joy for me to complete it in part

the reward is seeing all numbers there

making one to nine occupy each line

perceive the pattern and decrypt the code

algorithms hold the sequence of code

in mathematics resides the meaning

the teen arranges the colours in line

the challenge is beating another’s time

in despair, Rubik’s cube will take him there

so many moves to unscramble each part

a maze is a topology in part

we learn a 3D navigation code

to find the way inside and out of there

engage in research to discover meaning

rats learn to find food running the first time

so fast to memorise the quickest line

an interlocking puzzle holds in line

disassembled by removing a part

for a child the moves require extra time

lateral thinking deciphers the code

beating the challenge holds the meaning

once apart, next task, reassemble it there

each poetic line is enigma code

we puzzle each part with veiled meaning

so much there to resolve if we had time

Rohan Buettel lives in Canberra, Australia. His haiku have appeared in various Australian and international journals (including Frogpond, Cattails and The Heron’s Nest). His longer poetry recently appears in Quibble; The Goodlife Review, Rappahannock Review, Penumbra Literary and Art Journal, Mortal Magazine, Passengers Journal, Reed Magazine, Meniscus and Quadrant.