Last week, the illustrious leader of the poetry free-for-all tasked the writers of Next Line, Please with a prompt inspired by the challenging game of chess. He proposed that they write poems inspired by the name of a chess opening, such as “Sicilian Defense,” “Queen’s Gambit Declined,” “Hedgehog System,” “Grand Prix Attack,” “Napoleon Opening,” “Vienna Game,” or something of the like. The entries seemed to separate into two categories: the hedgehogs and the foxes.
Among the hedgehogs is Mack Eulet’s “J’Adoube” which means means “I adjust,” with a specific chess application: it is what is said by a player who wants to adjust the placing of a chessman without making a move with it.
Here in the hedgehog system, it’s midnight
now in every time zone. Our strategy:
more us, less space—a convex, touchy-feely
aggression like the big bang. Alternatingcurrents with no switch, the board’s white-black
voltage zaps our zugzwang with rigor mortis.
Once a pawn a time—it never matters.
The queen seems free until a hand swoops to pluck her.
Among the foxes is Don Baumgart's “Fegatello” which takes its title from the name of a chess defense also known as “the fried-liver attack,” a subset of the “two knights’ defense.”
All the priceless moments: talking fianchetto,
zugzwang, speculating rules of senet
even pleased to chat about parcheesi
and all our greatest aspirations;All our treasured things:
Queen Cleo’s dried-berry necklace, all this drink,
these inimitable livers, Dido’s trusty dildo,
the GPS that helped you find the clit;And then it was time to eat your last meal:
Fried liver, asparagus, raspberry tea;But you never made the final swing
Your c.o.d.: Asphyxiation
caused by venom
from the bite you gave yourself.
Visit the American Scholar's page to read the full post, with many more excellent poems and crafty chess moves! And please raise a glass on Saturday, March 31st, at midnight any time zone.
