Queening

 "It wasn't chess, it was checkers." --Ian Anderson to a critic who had said he plays chess with his audience.

That's a neat trick, you with the blade,

filing your teeth into chess pieces in your sleep.

You'd prefer the whole board gray,

every piece a bishop, coming at an angle,

lifting scripture from both cheeks.

Don't talk with your mouth full,

don't run that sideways stuff at the magic hour

with a rabbit in your hat, it's a tired old trick.

Such stale gambits won't maneuver me

into doing what you lack the guts for yourself.

I'm retiring from this bullshit, let's try a new game, it's called

Truth Or Dare, and I play it with knives.

_________

for Sunday Muse #181.