day of reckoning

You’re always on the hot seat
whenever you’re not doing
what the rest of the world is doing.

It’s never easy.

Fear and anxiety are always
just around the corner,
smiling behind your back,
taunting you,
determining your fate with the
toss of a coin.

"Heads or tails, brother, heads or tails. . ."

You choose heads,
it’s always tails.
You choose tails. . .

You get the idea.

On the surface, it all seems harmless.

But underneath it all,
it’s a chess match.

Only without an end game.

And without any queens or knights
or rooks or horses.

Just pawns and the occasional castle
where the kings reside.

Inevitably, the game ends
in a stalemate and
both players go home,
attempting to design new chess pieces,
inventing new strategies;
but their consciences won’t allow it,
nor will the rules.

So they carve their initials
into the remaining pieces and
hope that the kings allow them to share
the castle before
the pawns rise and shout, "Checkmate!"

Reviews

[roarke]

Pretty much why I always opt for “rock, paper, scissors”… lots of voice here.

[Philip Gaber]

Thanks, Roarke.