It's a game,
Life sized -
A chessboard,
Two kings across the expanse,
Black and white;
Poised.

All it has ever been -
A game;
A tower,
Leaning,
Ready to come crashing down.
One wrong move -
Fatal.

He's learned the game;
Life in his hands,
Child sized,
Malleable,
Outcomes spread before him;
Mirrors of the reality.
The world in a chessboard,
In a tower;
Pieces waiting,
Dice ready to tumble down.

He understands:
All games end.
Only one victor,
Too many deaths.
Chess pieces sacrificed;
Gallant knights lifeless,
No mercy for the queens.
The king in checkmate,
Dice falling around him:
He cannot lose.

He has always known:
To lose is to lose all;
To lose is to die;
To surrender is to see the board
In all its dark destruction,
Watching him in horror.

The king moves forward.
This is not a game -
This is life, reduced
To a tower of dice -
Child's play.

But it never was.
It never is.
It is war.