The Pawn

I am not the king, so noble in his throne
Nor the regal queen by his hand
I am not the tower whose gaze can roam
So far and steady as he stands
I am not the knight with all his pride
Not even his graceful steed
I am not the bishop by His Majesty's side
With loyalty in his every heed

I do not hold any power great
Nor am I blessed with able speech
My steps by far cannot equate
To whose agility I beseech

Yet with my comrades, here I stand
In a single block of eight-squared land
For king and kingdom I will fight
'Til enemy lines are behind my sight
Square by square, I'll find rank eight
And upon that line I'll seal my fate
This hope I have will never stray
That I, too, might be great someday.

Change

Could I turn all the ice
Into glittering snow?
Could I brush the dirt off my knees
And make new plants grow?

Could I somehow turn the hurricane
To a pretty summer breeze?
Could I forget about the sting
And just watch the bees?

Could I listen to the rain
And forget about the storm?
Could I ever light a fire
Just to keep warm?

Could I drink from a glass
And not think of poison?
Could I just kiss with the lips
That my tears always moisten?

I'm tired of the shadows,
Tired of the dark
Let me journey to the light
I'm ready to embark

The End of the Tunnel

By 11pm that night she was sobbing uncontrollably. She had carelessly dropped her heart, and it had shattered into a million pieces. In her misery and desPeration, she pushed away the only person who could have heLped her put it back together. He was the only one who knew exactly how the piEces fit into each other, maybe because often times he knew her even better than she knew herself. But nonetheless, she tried to shove him away like he didn’t matter. Maybe it was pArtially his fault after all, but who’s to judge that? She didn’t know exactly how hard She’d pushed him back, but she knew she could expect him to walk away without a backward glance. So, she clutched the pieces of her heart in her hand and turned away, running into a tunnel of darkness, where she sat and drowned herselF in her own bitter tears, not knOwing what to do or how to do it. When her sobs subsided, she staRed down at the broken, lonely shards in her hands. Sighing, she slowly turned her head to look back at the entrance of the tunnel she sprinted throuGh. It was bright, almost too bright to see anything, but she could tell. He wasn’t there. ‘Understandable,’ she thought, ‘he had a rIght to leave. After everything that’s happened, he had eVery right.’ Even with these seemingly confident thoughts in her mind, she felt new tears well up in her eyes. And just when it almost became too blurry to see, a shadow appeared in the entryway of the tunnEl. It was a shadow she had come to know very well. The shadow silently stepped to the centre of the light and stopped, as if waiting for something. Disbelief paralyzed her entire body. The shadow spoke, quietly, but just enough for the walls of the tunnel to carry his words to her ears. “I am here. Don’t you ever forget that.” Awestruck, she rose slowly to her feet. His shadow shifted, and he opened his arMs towards her. She didn’t know what to say. Feelings of love and pain flooded her mind, colliding into each other in yet another heated battlE. They both had left scars there before, but which one would prevail this time? She looked back at entrance. He was still there, arms outstretched, waiting patiently. Taking in a deep breath, she raised her head and took step towards him.