Chessboard’s Inescapable Lesson
by Odin Roark

How quickly the dampness of tears
Clouds the vision of tomorrow,
Bringing undesired weather of the heart,
To collide with the struggling brightness of mind.

From where does it start,
This suicide mission of the emotions,
Trying so desperately to stay truthful,
Not knowing all along,
Deceit holds the reins of Aphrodite,
Guiding passion’s emotions into
Tumult of mistaken lust,
Making body, object, things mere pawns
In the quest to drive royalty of spirit
Into the inescapable cornering
Of check mate’s victory.

The reluctance of queen and king concomitance,
The unwillingness to relinquish to the other,
Sorrow’s thinking ahead of consequence,
Rejecting conquest decisions now,
May be but surety of future addiction,
That habitual drive for success,
Whose quintessential factor of emotion
Keeps in exile the selfishness of ego,
Forsaking integrity of mistakes as necessary lessons.

How generous the teachings,
The availability of learning from error,
The invitations to but risk failure,
In order to know defeat,
Life’s secret teacher of what was,
What could be,
What at this moment,
Is.

How sublime is truth as the inescapable.