Gamed

A VERY impressive; melancholic, but also defiant at the end poem. I love the imagery - rich but not over burdening, just right to this reader‘s taste.

As a non native speaker of English my command would never be equal to those who were born to it. So with this caveat in mind, I’ll respectfully say that I have arrived to a different take on this poem compared with the one LeBroZ seems to be pointing at (there could be more than one legitimate readings of course).

I see this poem as a point of departure from all that is associated with games in life. The rich and varied images, which admittedly sent me more than once to the dictionary, are used to present the illusionary unreliable and unrepresentative qualities of games in life. Clearly, the goal here is not to keep a dichotomy between ‘games’ and ‘life’, but rather to force a new perspective on life (the beliefs attitudes relations associated with playing games?). I have not seen here the fun or the excitement (legitimate perspectives) but rather a challenging; confrontational person, recounting life – without the “benefits” of past illusions (first stanza). And what could be more blatant than a challenge to the king of the games:”Bag my rook to your queen/ She’ll be the deciding piece/ But pawns/ Now, they tell the real story”. You can play the game by its rules (there you have the deciding piece”) yet, pawns the weakest tools in the game, are not so in “the real story”. Finally, the exclamation “tag- your it!” Under most of the definitions I found, from the most common to those I have not heard before, “Tag” is not a complementary label (I am being euphemistic). And the ‘gamer’ in the morning will probably won’t have the narrator in the poem as a partner.

Go ahead

Play some games here;

Best be careful

Lest she get you

En passant.