We were handed the chessboard
without any instructions.
Did not know Queen from Rook,
or Bishop from Knight.
We clustered our pieces
on opposing corners,
unaware that the aim
was to take the other one out,
to claim their colours as our own,
capture the King.
take a crown from the body
only to reset the pieces
and begin again.
Instead we skimmed each other,
slipped between the checkered tiles
to the grey land beyond.
I remember the first time you touched me,
how the world shuddered as I fell.
I learnt the meaning of captured,
what it was to be conquered
and still I came back
to loose myself each time we played
because defeat
was so much better
than anything else I could find.
“write a poem that prominently features the idea of play”
Lovely!
I love this 💜
Thank you