ALICE UNDERGROWTH

Lasker
Capablanca
Fischer

it’s a grid for turning mind
into machine

a lattice that reads
like a labyrinth

fair enough
when I dream chess I am
deep within the Alice undergrowth

dee meets dum and
it is internecine war
because they are genetically
divided
by the colour of
their suits

inside this tiny teapot
the technicolour inner
world of many
a world champion

and there
the kettle they got to
run the show

down in that undergrowth
there are the pieces
nut none have as yet
evolved
aa far as basic
moves are concerned

aa yet no leopard crawl, crab
scuttle or anything vaguely
approaching
snakes and ladders serpent
swallow
and slither

is chess
not the perfect practice
wrapped in a nutshell
for your
average ambush predator

love that phrase, but
why Oh why
when I go charging from
square to
square across rank down
file liks
Napoleon at Austerlitz

does it always escape me;
must I always
fail to remember it?

Published by Damian Garside