Queen Sacrifice

A stand of palms in the desert
marks a cemetery of chess pieces:
ambushed knights, broken bishops,

stolen castles, carelessly slaughtered
pawns, and kings who lay down before
the deathblow and were buried alive.

At base camp, retired queens coach
new queens how to leverage
other pieces to win

the game of the day
that must be fought every day
with no tangible sense of victory

except that they played, and now
servants bring gin and tonics
to savor with the setting sun.

A young queen mourns the death
of her baby daughter pawn,
clutching cactus with both hands.

First published in Illumen