CHESS METAPHORS
Chiaroscuro as a chessboard
Souls of coal and snow stand hierarchically
In alternating sunlight and shadow--
Two elements poised in equal quantity
The only such in the tiny square universe
ENOUGH Dammit! --the white queen shrieks--
Chess metaphors are cliché --she decrescendos--
Next I suppose you'll have something about
Mindless pawns sent to their bloody deaths
Or knights vaulting hedgerows of doomed soldiers. Yuk.
So the queen challenges me to a game of her own devising,
And I accept, not wishing to offend.
She explains--it's 1/3 politics, 1/4 love,
1/5 Russian roulette, 1/6 ice dancing.
(That's only 95%, but I hold my varnished tongue.)
At halftime, the white queen twirls her flaming batons
And marches across the board trampling any pawns in
Her crystal-slippered path, unable to hear their
Muffled moaning because that's just....the....way...
she...is, y'know
She lets me win just to give me the frustration of
Never knowing how or why.
I sign the paper that designates me
"Knight of the Realm" and after kissing her
Florid ceremonial hand I take my awkward L-shaped
Steps back home.
--David B. Collins, Houston TX, 1999
Lately:
No Country for Old Men
There will be blood
Juno
Michael Clayton
I don't watch much T.V. ......(I still don't know who Mandy Moore is and I don't want to know)
Books that inspire personal growth
My Friends