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Tampico Chess Set
by Chris Sorrenti
from a thousand miles away
comes this chess set
sitting stoically in my living room
yet despite the quiet
that permeates it like a force-field
a story rises as vapor still
from its gray and white
marble board, thirty-two pieces
a poor craftsman
in Tamaulipas state
northeastern Mexico
has painstakingly carved out
the multitude of contours
that make up pawn to bishop
queen and king
from rock worth little
in his homeland
like Aztec warriors they stand
radiating history, recent and distant
stone-faced and stolen
to a foreign land
it may never be played with
but a treasured ornament
the centerpiece
of dinner conversations
its creator and owner
never to meet
except maybe in an adjoining world
a gift from dear friends
on honeymoon
who risked danger to obtain it
and not through the nose
of an importer’s hand
© 1985
610 hits as of November 2023
07/26/2015 Posted on 07/26/2015
Copyright © 2024 Chris Sorrenti
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by George Hoerner on 07/27/15 at 01:09 AM I love chess sets! I played a lot when I was just a kid. The boy across was the street county checker when he was 12. The county includes the city Detroit. He would not let me teach him chess until that year. When he was 14 he was junior champion in Michigan and he was 21 he was the 4th ranked player in the state. He took me to the Dearborn chess club when I was in the 9th grade and we became two of the top five players in the club that year. We were the two youngest players as well. So I love the poem and the memories it brought back. I haven't played seriously since I was in my 20's. |
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