Chess, 2nd cut

Pawns

One up
One down
Not reserved
Never heard
Borrowed time
Life's absurd
You're enlisted
Stand up
Fall down
A pawn's life
Moving around
Secure ground.


I'm Not a Pawn in Your Game

Neither are you
The King!
But I'm not sure
That means a thing
Cause when we play
It's strange to say
Your valiant piece
Is loose enough
To take my queen's heart away
Something split in two,
you know
Strategy here works a little like
You're ole soft shoe
Tap it babycakes
Your no pawn
No one to wander around
Step at a time
In no game, baby
The lion roars
You know my name
Another day
We'll play again.


Directions:

Player must move these to free up the pieces they deem more worthy,
they begin the engagement here. Pawn it, for another day.

Anyone who views them expendable forgets the strategic part they play,
nothing is more valuable. That's money in the bank.

When driven to the end of the board in play they retrieve the pieces
lost in battle, march on brave small one. Gimme another chance.

No pawn, game gone. You cannot play alone, my friend.


Picket Fence

Picket Fence
I wanted that
And happily ever after too
You are so beautiful to me
I'll do anything
Nothing else matters
Love will find a way!

Hedgehog
You wanted to hide
Inside sharp quills
Defending and balled
Afraid of Love's thrills
Leading to open-ness
Out of control
To my heart
You will not go.


Give me a Break, Move!

You will not be a pawn in anyone's game
Me, I'd rather be a pawn than carry some weight
Give me a break! Move!
Some people are strategic or live in their compartments
Others feel and they rationalize, develop double vision
Give me a break! Move!
You like delineation, contemplation
I'm pushing to the limit
Give me a break! Move!
The sky is the limit, unless there's a ozone rift
Or we are here as sacrifice. or to be a gift?
Give me a break! Move!
East meets west, produces heart attacks, yoga
Or layers of prime fats, tofu tea, Buddha breezes
Give me a break! Move!
Sacrifice the pawns, you said, that's me
The game is won and lost, understand that
Give me a break! You moved!



The Castle

I sat behind him in english
He was an elephantine narcissist
I listened to him hold forth
His words were his worth
Hemingway his main man
Those shoulders were rounded
He was kind of a tank
Shoot you in the gut, aim with the 50's gore
If your essay was around, Korea night.
I remember chewing my nails
Nervous as a cat
When Castle Carl was moving
Attacking at my back
My grades fell as his rose, splice my comma
Flying his Carl's best banter banner
Castleman was mighty
Until...one day... he met 'the other'
Fickle shakespeare laid him low
When my shrew rose out of a cockle shell
And saluted his mighty mouse
A queen took his piece
I sat in my square, reading malamud
Reading Oliver Twist
The thing about castle's
That I learned long ago
Things go their way
They love their flow....but there are ways in
Carl could be cruel, ah yes, he was
Asserting his charm
Did me no favors, no jig on the walls
Told me no rhymes
Held open no doors
Or relinquished those stone floors
The castle was really
A pretty big boor
And a lady took her desires and came no more.


The Rook

I don't know why, the rook took my book,
Satirized the cook
Meandered by the lovely brook
Stared down always with that look
Of my patience he partook
The castle walls were quickly took
Stolen by ones that scaled, with ropes and hook
The rook to foundation was surely shook
Solid stubborn lost that rook
When over leaping came new outlook.


Castle

Fortress stares down the row
Holds it's ground
Likes his control
Big guy on the block
Rocks in his walls
Moves with reluctance
Glorifies your falls.




Caught between a castle and a rook
Defending a King and Queen
It's bully being took
I'll never, ever be a rook.



Castles in the sand
Ah...you want to be ensconced
Within a house of lies
Feel the warmth of all you have
Enjoy the rules that you devised
The dragon in the basement
The beauty in the tower
The music in the chamber
The baby in your bower.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
A castle suggests a condition
That sounds a lot like war
It carries your defenses
And requires of you stores
A castle is your fortress
It can be your home
But it looks mighty rigid
And draws forth marching doom

Ahhhh the wave is forming
Coming to your shore
It washes at the castle
Knocks down your lovely door
It's made of a sunstance
That water can erode
In a minute it is over
Collapses into mud

ahhhhhhh
All this teaches something
To those with careful eye
Life's made of tiny stuff
Castles made of tiny grains
That our hearts and minds construct
Often can explode
And wash into ahhhhhh.



Knight

It's no wonder you find him attractive
His footwork is so keen
You can't believe he'll negotiate
Such a complicated scheme
With forward, diagonal he cuts a handsome triangle
The knights the one I adore
Bring it out, play my madrigal score
He's bound by his honor
Given his esteem
This champion on horse of white
Or steed of blackest sheen
Has stolen lots of queens away
When lost in others rhythm play
They failed to sense he's there to say
I'll love you, sure, only on this day.


Knight

There is this move
It's really quite tight
They call it queensbury
It involved eventually my knight.

He can't hug
And must hide in the quay
Anytime the Kings away
Our pieces are already in play


Knight Moves

Triangulation is his strategy
His pattern is three sided
The balance is the most secure
His posturing delighted
Upon my knight I hung the moon
Gloried in the stars
Looking at his eyes of blue
Azure skies they rang so true
He's lily white
Shifts to the right, defends the queen
Then can't be seen.

This knight that stole my heart away
Is off again foxing upon the green.

Bishop

Bearing the cross
They slice through the thicket
Not impeded, nor dross
Unencumbered by picket.



The Priest
Hears confession
Forgives, assigns
Atonement, _______ment
Dolls out the holy water
Lifts his eyes unto the ether
Moves diagonal
Kicks your keister.

(my apologies it just came out)

Queens

"Off with their heads," a famous one said
Another gave them cake
From an oven where hers was regally baked
But royal though they be
Powerful, commanding, she cannot quite win the game
Not the piece left standing, always called "a she."


king Me

the final Word as he tumbled down
mocked within his mighty Crown
match and point he tumbled over
check and Mate
the Game was over

i'm you

it was whispered in my ear
i'm you now
do you feel my pain
i'm you now
what i do i do for you
i'm you now
the lash hits my back
i'm you now
the hunger in your belly
I'm you now
the gaze upon the house on the hill
i'm you now
your anger, your life
i'm you now
your gifts and the blight
i'm you now
when you are cheated, abused
i'm you now
and when you carry my weak dark lies
i'm you now
cannot raise my hand in hate
i'm you now
cannot fail to see how weak
i'm you now
must see the glow of your being
i'm you now
look for the heart
i'm you now
my arms enfold us both
i'm you now
let me whisper in your ear
i'm you now



last first

no class ever went into a frenzy
to be the last one in their line
beating pushing frantically
to fall back to the one
that brings up the rear
they have no line ender notions
it's loathed

yet upon the importance of failures of our designing, of the cabooses
a last place people founded a belief system
with a non leader that said
while dressed in a discarded cloth
how you treat the least of us defines us
don't led from celebrity and
never fail to be here now

so it is stated he lived it
depending upon the kindnesses of strangers
optimism in their offering
taking on their demons
a cloth to their brow, cool the fever
not consumed by his death
deeply aware of the money changers

a teacher and a preacher
saying that his love was a beautiful stinking weed
that grew into a kings garden
choking away the selectively bred
a metaphor maker
clear in the message of care for others
non accumulation of wealth as wealth

teaching about this
your simple grandmother that freezes her
bananas in the fridge
gives you her life meaning in oral stories
bandages and nurses her lifetime
serving others to fulfill herself
saying this is really living our purposes here

a last place finisher in a rat race
penniless buried on borrowed time
lived life, her brisket life well
she read, loved, tried, cared for me, this drives the now
in the moments she touched the face of her god
by baking a pie of sweet potatoes

and inviting you to the table



heal me


if you cannot feel or care
with me
can you heal me

if the last become first
in the life of this child
are you there

if you had everything perfection
would you give it away
to know its loss

what is love
without the body to carry it
and thus be redeemed

if a love made me not feel this ill pain
so sharply
could this lift us

or would it be felt
in its rejection
when cruelly pulled a right

bliss and pain came
as i asked again
can you heal me


tend the sick, cloth the poor, feed the hungry

yeah hard words to believe in
harder still for anyone to follow
resisted by titans and totalitarians, by titled and cameoed
photo opted and photo shopped.

but bringing a case of waters or some nice coloring books
to a classroom of kids
a nice mac to allow them to talk to the world
it doesn't spring from word to deed

easily and freely in this world
of critical scientific reason
it takes something more
you have to care enough to give.


own nothing, give it away

giving a lot here to the landlady
for her investments she'd like some understanding
it's been a real hard few months

we got to talking about it when the toilet blew
and it was time to negotiate the fix
not that she would talk about my teaching, life

her mind is filled with her money
her expectations for it, her investing
as Thoreau said her house our home owns her

i just enjoy it as i pay the rent
and consider ways we lose ourselves
as we grow into adults that have to much

that we can't see the rest at all
but its okay because its not a lost or even bad thing
shes just struggling to figure things out like me

and shes been fair enough
and helpful enough this wasn't fair to her
it was just the way to a poem