Chess

‘Neither will win’, the audience says

Now that the contest starts

For black men move without their heads

And white without their hearts.

‘And if one shall advance’, they said,

‘So much as one short pace,

His fellowmen shall shun him then

A traitor to the race’.

‘You wooden men give up the game,

For what are all these squares

But black and white and black again,

The pattern of your cares?’.

The chessmen quickened into life,

For love has conquered pride,

Those that were angry face to face

Are quiet side by side.