Poetry Corner: The Horseman

The Horseman

“I was a chess piece you handled. 

A horseman polished and free.

You cuddled me inside your warm soft palms.

Where I thought I, 

Would always be.

You moved all the pieces around me. 

We sat in a golden chair.

I watched as you pushed many over.

It hurt me but I kept your care.

You fondled me as if you knew me.

You kept me in pockets of time.

I carried so many of your fingerprints.

Some times I really thought,

They were mine.

We slept in a blanket of warm spots.

Sheltered from rain and the cold.

So many of the pieces around us,

Were beginning to reek from the mold.

You kept tipping all of them over.

They crashed and I cracked with regret.

And as I begin to need polish,

You slowly began to forget.

The times we had been with each other.

I watched you cry out in your pain.

I let you cling to me so tightly.

I never felt winds , cold, or rain.

One day I looked all around me.

And all of the pieces were gone.

You squeezed me as if you were angry.

I shouted and cried and I moaned.

You smashed me to pieces in the yard there.

On rocks unfamiliar and cold.

You walked all over my bright spots.

I melted.

I crumbled.

I fold.

The game was officially over.

The final last piece had been played.

I laid in a puddle of ruin.

And so long,

That is were I had stayed.

Until one day the sun hit me.

Aligned my spirit with light.

It took me back into the dawning day.

Far from the dark, cold,

Midnight. 

I galloped and ran with the wind in my hair.

Like I had not ridden before.

I rode past your spirit with freedom.

But your feet were concrete to the floor.

The curtains were pulled in your shadows.

The board was a broken display.

I rode in the sunshine with splendor.

I slept in the blankets of hay.

The game is now really over.

And I am as free as the wind.

The pieces were all moved and destroyed there.

And you will never play me again.”

 Written by Lucia Sullivan copy right 2021 all rights reserved