Chess Poem by Dawn Eve Bradley

Check mate.
You win.
I found myself captured,
trapped within
a game that you had taught me,
with all the tears and loss it bought me.
You called me Queen,
I felt like pawn,
easily taken, the game withdrawn,
a piece collected, dropped on a pile
of rooks who hadn't flown the mile
to reach you in your lonely castle....

Check mate.
You won.
My knights all captured
every one,
my bishops chanting desecration
your every move an incantation
of all that you would do to win,
your every move a mortal sin,
playing on the shadowed squares,
believing he who wins, dares
to sweep the board and start anew,
was never such a fool as you.