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Dear God of chess games
turned long-range
missiles,
fateful tanks
and heavy metals
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Let our prayers
be likewise geared
for long-range impact
and great precision
to protect the innocent
from invasion
and division
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For suddenly the game has changed…
Another match
just like we played last
season and the last…
in fierce competition, yes,
but a theoretical game of chess
none the less…
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Until today
when these wooden figures
turned flesh and bone and tender
When suddenly the tactics are tactile
made of real fire,
no fiction in shrapnel
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For these chess pieces bleed…
the rooks buckle under pressure
and bishops bend break shatter
pawns blasted
asunder by another
monster and another
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And the bloodied board has begun to drip
onto the carpet
that keeps getting pulled out
from beneath our feet
and we can’t seem to stop it…
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The fabric of an entire continent
stained sprayed
afraid
as we pray
our way through this somber day.
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We are wildly untethered
weathered
by winter
and pandemic
we are deep in it
dismay, dismal and may
we finish the game
somehow saved
somehow civil
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May Justice be the victor
and may the chess master
master his own inward glance
and retreat from disaster
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Unseat the monsters
who make chess pieces bleed
onto the carpet
the kings and queens are just mothers and fathers
protect the pawns
God of chess games
please stop this…
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