a white pawn was deliberately
exchanged.
shot dead on the king’s side
of the board.

the new open file
made the enemy king
look naked.

chess is not a game of gentlemen.
it is a brutal pact
between two dictators.

you call them kings.
i call them what they are,
dictators.

if poker is a bluff
and cycles of chance,
that is the market made manifest.
then chess is the grim patience
of decades,
a field of consequence
seen all at once.