day of reckoning

You’re always on the hot seat

whenever you’re not doing

what the rest of the world is doing.

It’s never easy.

Fear and anxiety are always

just around the corner,

smiling behind your back,

taunting you,

determining your fate with the

toss of a coin.

"Heads or tails, brother, heads or tails. . ."

You choose heads,

it’s always tails.

You choose tails. . .

You get the idea.

On the surface, it all seems harmless.

But underneath it all,

it’s a chess match.

Only without an end game.

And without any queens or knights

or rooks or horses.

Just pawns and the occasional castle

where the kings reside.

Inevitably, the game ends

in a stalemate and

both players go home,

attempting to design new chess pieces,

inventing new strategies;

but their consciences won’t allow it,

nor will the rules.

So they carve their initials

into the remaining pieces and

hope that the kings allow them to share

the castle before

the pawns rise up and shout, "Checkmate!"