A GAME OF CHESS

Many poets have likened this life to a game of chess.
This poet is now losing such a game, he does confess.

Losing the game in this manner is no laughing matter.
It’s come to put up or shut up—an end to all idle chatter.

Who is the one who needs to put up or shut up?
The Unbounded-Ocean-of-Love-Man, or the beggar with an empty cup?

This one, conceived from Your Divine Imagination,
Has nothing to put up except his absolute-poverty station.

On the chessboard You-the-King hold him checkmate in his tiny square.
He knows he has landed here after a lifetime of much error.

This is the moment when You can administer Justice or Mercy.
The vanquished has heard of Your penchant for dissolving adversity.

Being LOVE itself, with a scope of action that has no limit,
Can You hear the cries from Your lover’s world, and yet leave him stranded in it?