Queen's Gambit (Park West, Chicago, IL, 11.6.21)

Battle face, your skin's displaced, the war is won, your sins erased

The viewer sees an action scene, the actor sees a budding dream

The gambit's drawn, a fallen pawn, the first step of a marathon

The taker sees an easy win, the giver sees an opening

It all seems so black and white

No wrong could ever come off as right

You can spend your life being like the rest

Stuck to the board just playing chess

Climate change, earth rearranged, bow to down to the orangutan

The penguins see they're quarantined, the people build their submarines

Meter made, a failing grade, a critic made for masquerade

The student sees a rhyming scheme, the poet sees a hidden dream

It all seems so black and white

No wrong could ever come off as right

You can spend your life being like the rest

Stuck to the board just playing chess

A strange device, the mental heist - the well-employed young poltergeist

The skeptic thinks it's forgery, the spirit knows its sorcery

A lost address, USPS, our whereabouts are meaningless

The postman sees a work reprieve, a traveler's topography

Gambit won, the taker stunned, the undivided overrun

The castled king is fortified, the fallen pawn immortalized

It all seems so black and white

No wrong could ever come off as right

You can spend your life being like the rest

Stuck to the board just playing chess