Essay #6
SRC
Have you faced the onslaught of entire brigades,
on the bleak battlefield of monotonous pattern?
In such a place where a tap shatters silence like a scream?
Where all friendship dissolves into acrimony,
and opponents hold all the same, common concern?
Who will be named the champion supreme?
In the game that is more than a game, where soldiers fall and queens are slaughtered;
And all on a land of 64 checkered.
Have you commanded an army of warriors and rulers,
from an age no older than five?
And yet, still risen to a standing of high prestige?
Compelled people to face you with fear in their eyes,
And wonder silently if they could survive?
Could they possibly protect their kingdom from siege?
During the trial that is more than a trial, where nothing is safe in the land of war;
and the black and white squares become splattered in gore.
Have you ever known the thrill of luring
the enemy down a fatal path?
Have you crafted snares with both artifice and elegance?
Combined sheer will and technical skill,
to unleash the full might of your wrath?
Have you been told your tricks are the work of true brilliance?
Within the contest that is more than a contest – a challenge of craft and wit,
and the winner is the match's victor, who from a sure point, knew it.
Have you been faced with the most desperate of situations,
to live and triumph or face an end?
And been victorious when hope was so close to departing?
Have you been tested to the mental extremes,
when you kept meeting limits that never ceased to transcend?
But after all this, finishing same as your starting?
Hearing the challenge that is more than a challenge - to rise up and prove,
Your heart is poured into every single move.
Life is very much a kind of chess,
teeming with competition, struggle, and good and ill events.
Virtue developed from all kinds of mistakes,
Every game, every lesson - unique as snowflakes.
The true failure felt with the drop of a king,
Is suicide, you see, giving up on your dreams!
And worst of all, it's forfeiting the chance to play,
The game of chess that is more than a game,
And live your life, which is somewhat the same.