The Lost Knight

The orange glow

from the fireplace

lights up the room.

Two players

with their brows furrowed,

eyes locked onto the dark

polished wooden board.

As one player moves

his knight to E4,

the other player’s brain

is racing, puzzling

over why he moved that.

But this is no ordinary knight,

this knight has been marked by another color,

an outsider

taken from another chess game

to replace the lost knight.

The bright white knight

sticks out among

the dark wooden pieces.

The white knight draws attention to himself

while the dark knight watches

from underneath

the couch

as he is unseen and replaced.