RAINBOW
I was inside
a rainbow
playing
Chess
Queen’s Gambit Accepted
which I was
once warned to decline
but now,
as a matter if course,
of course always accept
the pieces shifting from
shade to
shade
(fuschia versus turquoise,
lavender versus burnt sienna
never
black versus white,
or, for that matter,
white
versus black)
and me, since we
were going
classical
not blitz,
having time on my hands to
do a bit of devilish intellectual
handiwork and
imagine a
world where
one might insult the law
savagely, force
a backrank mate in
the opening and
prance
away, scotfree
living to fight
another way, show
the world a
better way
but then, as always,
with all your
vast YouTube tutoring you
indeed
got the upper hand
gave me
your most gracious victor’s
handshake, and
indeed kiss
which was sweet, and fine,
and almost everything
but it was
not what
I had in mind,
not the bearhug my heart
was set on
but so it goes
time passed, would be decades
before our rematch
revisit
that old rivalry, rekindle
what, if anything, left
of that
old desire
light that candle
point it at the heavens
aim it
at a star
one at the heart of a rainbow nebula
one that
tells a different story
from those who string us along
with wild musical metaphors
of pitch
and tone
and, above all, resonance
everything connected by
what we cannot see,
simply
too complex for
this dimension
and yet carrying this song
everywhere instantly, all
at once
hither and thither
the game
already played, outcome
there in that very first move.
