Poetic Monday: The Lone Pawn

I stand here facing them

My eyes sting

From the poisoned air

By my tormentors

Show them a mirrored position

Why can’t they see

My pain reflected therein

If my ancestors were alive

They would be surprised

Because this is deja vu

An act re-enacted

Repeated in a loop

Countless times it shows

I stand here razing hell

My cries ringing

Through the deaf ears

Of my plaguers

I knock down pieces

Thinking to myself

The best defense is attack

Gunfire ringing

My Queenside in tatters

The tension never subsides

But then they say

It’s the best way

To stay in the game

Wild, thought out maneuvers

Turned out to be

A repeated futile struggle

I stand here constricted

Proud horizontally

But still standing tall

Tell my pesterer

“I can’t breathe!”

A minority attack

And my trachea hurts

White pawns closing in

The game is rigged

Or was it my choice?

I received a mixed board

But I won’t go out

No, not like this

I need new rules

If I’m to stand a chance

How else will I survive?

Too many sacrifices

In this mad game

But we still thrive

Because we have arrived

The lone pawns

Standing kneeling voicing

That others may progress

– Cosmos Chipepo

A foot soldier I am

A peasant of little value

Easily manipulated, I was

Sacrificed to fulfill

Greater purposes, they say

I’m the weakest of six

But still, the soul and life

Always in line of defense

Cursed, never to look back

Just keep moving forward

Diagonally, others are captured

I become isolated

With no companion, or support

But as the soul and life

I believe in me

The power of rebirth

I am the LONE PAWN

TUNRAYO

Firmly against a non-caring opposition

I stand unshaken

One knee down

With a sign of protest in my hand

Centuries past and still

The black pawn is misunderstood

Many were slain

For the same promotion it pursues

All pawns matter

But a black pawn on seventh rank

Matters more than most

All lives matter

But a chess board

With only white squares

Is chess no more

White move first

Black pawns protest

But met with rooks

Quite set to mow  

Now here I stand

A pawn dreaming of action

Destined to evolve

Laying all hopes on promotion