"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.