Checkmate (Bangkok Suite)

Checkmate has been published in All of Me Vol. II, courtesy of Shadow Spark Publishing. Featured art is by Bobby Kostadinov.

Listen to Checkmate by Richard Charles Stevens (Bangkok Suite)

Listen to One Night in Bangkok by Murray Head

♔
(Checkmate)
Loved by the light and thoroughly despised by the shadows
Bastardised by Erebus and Thanatos
Masterminding light through way of shade that turns the dead of night away in favour of fine days romanticised
Abhorred for what I stand for as a thousand cruel demises fitting to my crimes are fantasised
Pecking out the eyes of every scandalised suggestion leading blindly to regression of infection
Stripped of my protection as the bastard sword unsheathes
Not inclined to cease until such time as I am down upon my knees
Nursing this disease with all the ease of a philosopher
Predilection for the balm to blackest hearts decree
Bleeding prose through every opened artery
Yet deemed to pose no threat as I do not possess dark art degree
Still the harbingers of doom refuse to pardon me
For gloomy skies require a choir to conspire of disharmony
Disarming me of sword and shield
Alarmingly I richen yield
In stillness of the reckoning undressed by never lessening of purity of weapon that I wield
With every glance revealed providing insight to the origins of blight
Death will ever beckon final tether to be severed by the scythe
Howbeit blind endeavour is a devil of a prize
For every storm we weather lends to blessings in disguise
Curses need not redefine us dead behind the eyes
Sunrise need not shine a broken promise in the skies
Some of us will never get the chance to say goodbye
Some of us are dispossessed of any strength to try
Others search for distant lights and celebrate these beacons of impenetrable light
We must therefore suffer winter’s blight
We must therefore pay the harshest price
We must wear our scars as a reminder of how far we came to find the light beneath the shade and still maintain the blindest faith
Face our demons locking horns with that composed to chasing hopeful dreams away
Reveal through everlasting gaze that we will not succumb this way to seed decay
Lead the way for others to proceed of their free will
Leave a trail for every time we feel obliged to spill
Sneak away from view to kill to soak in more fulfilling rays
Build up a resistance to persistent parasites that eat away at daylight
Thrive amidst the tidal wave of blackest night
Striving forth to distant lights
To winter’s discontent
Gifting full consent to ventures spent of valid reasons to lament
Despised by shadows we may be
But we don’t need our eyes to see the light within us burning bright and set our sighted captives free
Flightless wings can still exceed their span
We may bleed profusely but this merely proves we can
Darkness moves for no man
Stubborn to the final breath
Governed by the advocates of suffering and death
Knowing not another thing but harrowing and shallowing our length and width and breadth
Will not cease their tyranny until they see those predisposed to shows of moral decency condemned
Howbeit this need never be the end to sense and feeling
For I am keeper of the secret they’re hellbent on not revealing
The magic within me immune to bind
This is why they hold me in contempt
From elemental curse I am exempt
Their words of burden sound uncertain each spell bound has no profound effect
Sneering in discreet domains peering through their window panes
Leering at their grave reflections
Whitewashed walls of pale complexion
Knelt before the altar of a tainted sermon set to falter
Heralding their new world order
Heretofore dead in the water
Behind the curtains they remain
Every day is just the same
Architects of branches far too gnarly for a charmed embrace
Craftless pawns whose lack of form has seen them placed in panicked state
And should I die before I wake
My weightless soul they’ll never take
Levitating low tide midst the truth that I disseminate
Decimating darkness as I break the chains reclaim the harness
Taste each frameless pain and stake my claim on fresh terrain regardless
Won my first chess trophy at the tender age of nine
Thus while my expertise may have receded over time
Never have I seen with such a crystalline clear line of sight
Never have I been at heart of such a mighty tribe
White knight moves to seize the king
Shadows fade to black deprived of headway
Light declares the easy win
And we arrive at endgame
Notifying full and final
Checkmate
Checkmate
♔