Ambition’s Taw: Epic Recasting

1: The Child’s Circle

We knelt in dust,

knees scuffed by playground gravel,

palms sweating over a fistful of marbles,

agate swirls,

cat’s-eyes,

steelies gleaming like secrets.

The circle was chalked,

the rules simple:

aim,

strike,

claim.

Yet even then,

the taw was more than glass,

it was destiny rolling between fingers.

And now…

We stand back and gaze at the marbleized sand lot,

all supposedly grown up,

yesterday’s marble morphed into a planet in a world-game of nibs,

waiting to be struck again by the steely taw.

II. The Cosmic Marble

Lifted skyward,

the defending taw becomes Earth itself,

a swirling agate born of fire,

patches of green and brown,

oceans like molten glass,

clouds drifting as chalk dust over the ring of stars.

From orbit,

the game is vast:

continents collide like marbles,

wars erupt like ricochets,

and every child’s flick becomes a soldier’s trigger.

III. The War Circle

Ukraine lies in the circle now,

its soil cratered,

its cities pocked like scarred playgrounds.

Marbles scatter into shrapnel,

steelies fall from the sky,

missiles,

 drones,

 iron spheres of destruction clattering against the earth.

The taw rolls on,

guided by hands that once held laughter,

now clenched around rifles,

around casket handles.

The game is the same,

only the cost has changed.

IV. The Agate Against Steel

Yet amid the ruin,

Ukraine glimmers like agate,

its veins cracked,  

its colors bruised,

but still luminous,

still refusing to be shattered.

Russia flicks its steelies,

cold marbles of iron,

missiles and rods that rain like cruel toys.

But agate resists,

swirling with resilience,

its fractures becoming light,

its circle widening into rebirth

rolling forward seeking its place in the circle of survival.