checkmate


king to b6,
takes pawn.

so he got you anyway.

after all your painstaking labors
to beat the system
you went from invincible
to dead in less than ten seconds
flat:

your army of bodyguards
your vitamin supplements
your gun collection
your Volvo

meant absolutely nothing
when your private jet
mysteriously
lost an engine and dropped
out of the clear sky

on a collision course with hell.

you sit there, reclining

in the bombed-out wreck

with a stunned look on
your face
and shit in your pants

the oxygen mask between your knees
covered in a small amount
of blood that trickles
off your forehead

the laptop still serving up
real-time stock quotes
and completely unaware

that its owner has been
permanently deactivated.

these are the things that get us cackling
so hard we choke;

when kings and empires topple,
when the Spanish Armada
falls victim to a tempest,
when men who think they have
control over anything

blink out of existence without
time to
get in a word
edgewise,

these are the greatest moments in history:

and may
the remainder of your fellow man
be forewarned,

there is no hope of your finding heaven
anywhere except
within yourself,

because
in this divinity
we always write
bad checks and

in this divinity
the whores are
made of gold and

in this divinity
the swans are
on the prowl

for you infidels who
decided that life was
about nothing

and were foolish to
even think about
coming here.

divinity is a chess game you cannot win
because your opponent
is always yourself,

not god,
not satan,

it is you who assumes the role
of predator and prey.

he has created the ultimate
dead end to every path
you could possibly take,

from worship
to atheism

from sainthood
to affluence;

this is why
we refer to him
as
God.





listen to the thunder
now and then,

that’s him laughing.




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