Chess
Every independent, single woman has an epiphany at some point in her life, I suspect. Mine came just out of university, when I realised that despite being academically in the top five percent of my class, I'd been letting men I loved tell me (subtly or otherwise) that I was really a very stupid woman who couldn't be trusted with things of intellect. Now, many years down the line, this is the inspiration for 'Chess' - which happens to be the day I learned that the Queen is the most powerful piece in the game. After that, the poem almost wrote itself, really. This is my tribute to every woman who's been informed that she's less important than a man, less intelligent, and worth far less. Because that's bullshit, and deserves to be called for what it is.
A man I loved told me:
This role-playing game system
Is too complicated for you.
You wouldn’t know the rules.
You don’t know how to plan Warcraft strategy.
Here, I’ll play, you can’t do it like that.
Chess is hard. You need to be logical.
I can’t teach you. You won’t understand.
A lifetime of interrupted sentences
Headshakes, disparaging remarks
Looks that said, loud in the silence
It’s too hard for you. You are stupid.
You’re only a girl.
Just a girl.
Today, I study the chessboard before me:
The Queen is the most powerful piece
And I am reclaiming what was stolen from me
Taking back my power.
- Shuku
Shuku is a Musician-Trying-To-Make-It, and a Writer-Who-Would-Like-To-But-Is-Too-Paiseh. She admits to an acute weakness for well-chosen words strung together in either sentence form or poetry, and would marry Good Writing in a heartbeat if it were legal.Inspirations? Anything and everything, especially observations on the human condition and, occasionally, malfunctioning postal services, pompous bureaucracy, and the immortal Calvin and Hobbes.
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