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Escalation · Poetry Minific ·
Organised by Anon Y Mous
Word limit 15–1000
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Fianchetto
From my childhood,
one dream remains,
the one where I stood
at the basement door,

and there below me
as I trod the steps down,
a great glowing chessboard
and the huge silent pieces

gliding on their errands,
taking, being taken,
a dance of kings and courtiers,
queens and bloodless slaughter.

I descended to join them,
footless in sleep,and as
I passed the bottom step,
cold terror froze me to my square

as the grim slit-visored
bishop slid towards me
with terrible intent--
but then I awoke shouting, safe.

Yet nowadays I realize
that it wasn't quite game
for me to escape mate thus
by flipping the dreamboard.


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#1 · 1
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I don't know what the title means, so that's lost on me. I'm kind of getting two things from this, and I'm not sure what is intended. It's of course a long-standing trope to play chess with Death, and the imagery seems to go that way, if not explicitly said. Without that, though, I don't really have the context to understand the meaning here, aside from just a simple "here's a creepy scenario." I take the "escalation" as the narrator only observing the game at first, then becoming incorporated into it, and it's a cool (though maybe unintended) inversion to have the narrator descend to it by going down the stairs.
#2 · 1
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I had to:

Google the title, but even after that, I'm not quite sure what image it's trying to convey. It does seem a little anti-climactic, too, with the narrator not having any real revelation about the experience or any explanation of why this one childhood dream stays. What is it about the imagery that makes it stick in the narrator's head?

Mike
#3 · 1
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As I read the lineup,
the chess term hits my eye
and, like a presumptive pawn,
my gaze is taken en passant.
Post by GroaningGreyAgony , deleted
#5 ·
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I fucking knew this was yours as soon as I read the the first four lines. (Yet I didn't do any guessing. Why? Didn't want to be rude like I am now.) It's written a bit better than Buyer's Remorse and much better than mine. I guess. Feels like a poem to me. Maybe I dumb shit down too much?
Anyhow - where is the escalation? Playing chess in a dream is not exciting. Chess is boring because it both players are thinking at least 2 or much more moves ahead. Dreams are too chaotic and non liner. Escalation is an order shitshow that you can follow the threads back to where it started. Therefore no escalation for me, me and me.