Different Boards
Is this what multi-dimensional chessbeing played as policy
is supposed to feel like
because to me, I feel like
I’m in a game of Chutes and Ladders
with grenades being tossed in
for their amusement.
The board is changed:
the chutes lined with glass,
the ladders slippery,
my turn always ending
in starting over.
The game is rigged:
their strategy a smokescreen -
destabilization, destruction,
then pieces cleared away
before they call it victory.
But we are not playing the same game.
I am bound to dice, to numbered squares,
counting steps and obeying turns,
while they move in silence
across another board entirely,
one I am not meant to see.
They know exactly what they are doing.
They let me play,
let me believe
I am one roll away
from the blue ribbon square.
That is their strategy.
Poetry by Melinda K Zarate
Written on 2026-04-09 at 00:07
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