Chess by Carson Pytell

A man born into a checkerboard life

soaks more suds than he spends,

goes ahead wherever he goes,

never ending beginnings.

Somewhere, he insists, Spring's unshaken

and water circles about, flies buzz forever

and people soonafter smile when they pout

as they know the proof of one is in the other.

Listen, he says, you'll hear just what he means:

Anytime, anywhere a sonorous silence;

wind, water, flies, breath, yourself listening.

Everywhere is everything, you know.

Squeeze him while still you can,

sop up his soapiness, secondhand

at least, and begin yours as his ends

with a proven cry: Checkmate!

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Carson Pytell is a writer living outside Albany, NY whose work has appeared in numerous venues online and in print, including Artifact Nouveau, The Virginia Normal, NoD Magazine, Rabid Oak and Bluepepper, among others. He serves on the editorial board of the journal Coastal Shelf, and his short collection, First-Year (Alien Buddha Press, 2020) and chapbook, Trail (Guerrilla Genesis Press, 2020) are now available. In December 2020 he is slated to participate in the Tupelo Press 30/30 Project.