Chess

Illustrated by Jessica Groom

Like a game of chess we are pawns,
Moving from space to space,
Place to place,
Here to there.

Oblivious to our movement between areas of black and white
We accept the direction that we are going,
And as we look to see that distant dim light,
All we meet is the impenetrable knight.

As the night closes in around us,
The opportunity to acknowledge the gray fades,
Our fantastical vision of a king and queen becomes a shade
Of that which we desperately hope to become.

Caught up in the game we play,
Constrained by this board of four walls,
Together we lose ourselves in the fray,
Yet we fail to hear the pawn’s faint call.