David and Anne are playing chess.
The game of kings.
David’s thinking tactically,
While Anne’s mind is on other things.

Anne plays White, but loses ground
In the center, and her concentration wanes.
Outside the room, the easy darkness
Presses at the window-panes —

She softly gazes out at it
As David launches his attack.

“Your move,” he says, and jars her back
Into the minding of the game;
She had been wondering at the way
The darkness called her name.

Image: this is a heavily doctored version of the photograph A Chess Game by Flickr user Jakub Kadlec, posted under a Creative Commons  Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) license. Using image-editing program GIMP, I layered and collaged the image, meanwhile applying a bunch of filters, I couldn’t even tell you now which ones.

I am not at all sure about the title of this poem yet, but “A Game of Chess” has been used before and who’d invite that comparison? I am open to suggestions.