Tuesday, 9 June 2015

Zugzwang

This game of chess, this drive to seize and take,
this duel of bluff and countermove and feint,
is what your songs and movies celebrate?

This urge to rob another of their space,
the meet-cutes that seem like intimidation,
this is what your culture venerates?

This fight in which I seem to have no chance,
this slow-quick-quick-slow-lunge assassin's dance:
you call this romance?

I'm not enchanted. I refuse to hymn
this torture that we sanctify with rings.
I will talk about the other things,
and abandon, on this board, my toppled King.


Zugzwang: a situation encountered in chess where any move you make will weaken your position.

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