Player Piece

And so begins, a life.

When a piece-- violet-- clunks the board.

Let us begin.

Smiling with vigor and youth.

How arrogant, how playful.

Moving along colored tiles.

Rambling around in graceful ballet steps.

Dancing and floating about.

In a storm of dandelion fluffs.

But wipe that away and so is left the solemn duties of social graces.

Social graces, that for the little purple piece, possesses thorns.

And so the player grows antsy as they do cold.

Moves their piece along with caution.

Desires money and status.

Draws their cards and does the maths.

Which school? Which value? And what course of study?

She is ten years old.

The violet piece, who knows its age. It is a toy.

And from there on continues the dictated clothes.

Did you notice?

The player is in a nice shirt and khaki pants.

Continues life all on their lonesome.

In the sickness and the health.

Of loneliness.

Some days it is sickening.

The utter quiet, the destitute of doing nothing, being nothing beyond a small house.

Others it is a pleasure. To be left to thoughts and amalgamations spanning the sky of imagined ideas. Of creative overture.

Directed, dictated with the wand tipped in pencil lead.

And who knows when it starts.

Just before, when they have met the other.

Player and piece.

Meeting upon the board.

Seated herself, just like that.

Our player, for a whole second, may have scowled.

But then, then she beamed.

They continue on together.

Sometimes one ahead, sometimes the other.

Until joy and laughter fills where the kids are playing with their different colored pieces.

Through cold and through heat.

Through the rain and through the snow, when they do by phone.

But the game, is still not done.

It's still not done.

The purple piece wants to shout.

Because there's a future, there's life and there's friends. They may leave me behind.

The piece, is no longer a toy.

Having lived and run and raced across life.

Before tasting laughter and having the caring hands of another.

Days and days go by before her player comes back.

She is in loose clothes but still smiles.

Leering towards that little toy.

That with two fingers she flicks to its side.

The game, very much over for the time being.