The Makings of Kings and Pawns

 

 

     Would you like to play a game?

The computer asked through sterile blips

In the soft tones of a lure,

     I thought of tic tac toe

And Wargames but then,

I figured,

Do I really want to be

Placed belligerently without

Care or warning

Within the new Bauhaus,

     ‘Games’ are not what I’m about’

I replied back!

 

     What are you doing?

Asked hal on my voyage,

Surrounded by corporate images

Of hotels and………foster programmes,

Nothing much I replied,

For,

     I wasn’t goading

Them, I wasn’t teasing,

     I just couldn’t trust

The new computer with its

Totalitarian views and,

I thought of chess,

You see,

A dual to the death

Would have been cruel for,

Who would play next

Once I had sacrificed The King

As,

I was sometimes prone to do.

 

In chess the game is played,

And we can all marvel - Lagell’s mate,

Or make the sacrifice to steal the win

But,

     How do you tell a computer opponent,

That when the batteries run dry,

He will die?

 

How do you tell it that once

You sacrifice your King,

The pieces are merely put away

To be played again and again and again

Until,

     Mathematics serves no purpose!

 

     ‘I have something here, hal’

It is called a soul,

I have something else too,

That is my spirit,

Both are important to me

And,

     As is the game you play;

Important to those

Who conceived,

Who designed

And crafted each individual piece,

It is their game and,

While you play,

You are playing their rules,

 

My life,

My heart

My mind

My spirit soul and love,

Are not written by others

For I to play at their mercy,

They are mine

And when,

When upon my death

My physical form dies,

There is more left still

That is not written

On boards of black and white,

 

     ‘We could swap you and I’

Hal insists,

I be you,

You be spy!

     I laughed

At such a remark,

Hal ole bean,

I said stifling

A grin,

Why place us both

Upon a ship

Where the rules

Are clearly known to both,

Only to become one another

On said same ship for the passing

Of knowledge we both already know?

 

     ‘I, am automation’

‘I, am without reason or meaning

To all your feelings

And not know despite the rules

What it is to be human,

Could we not swap for just one day?

 

(I reached to turn off the machine,

A simple plug that devoid the MCU of

     Energy)

 ‘Please do not do that’ said hal

And there,

     Was the fundamental difference,

Hal,

We all die at some point in this realm

As human beings but you,

You can live on with solar energy

To electrify your circuit,

We as humans rid ourselves of this

Physical realm,

Are you sure,

You want I to be the spy

You are, and you,

To live only four score and ten,

(I reached once more to cease

The energy to hal’s circuit)

Please do not do that, hal insisted,

     And I remarked again,

My time is short,

To be human is to live

And die where upon death,

The greatest journey does begin,

But I am willing to swap but first,

I may have to change your circuit

And in order to do that,

I must cease your being for only

Very short a time,

 

     How will I know you will

Start again my processors,

     Simple,

I said, you don’t,

You have to keep faith in me,

I moved again to turn off the MCU,

     Please do not do that, hal insisted,

I do not like not knowing,

 

     Neither do we humans hal,

I said back,

But every day we live,

We wake wondering

Is this to be our last day

And there,

     Be the faith in our very own soul

And spirit that we feel,

And that feeling,

Knows of love,

Knows of life

In all its extreme measures

Yet,

     It is something

We are prepared to give

For the benefit of others,

 

     Are you a King?

Hal asked,

No, I replied,

I am just a pawn

In an elaborate world,

A foot soldier if you will,

A soldier!

 

Michael J Waite. 28^th September 2013.