Teaching Chess is he
Shiloh Noone it is
known more is he
for the music he plays

(he asserting quite often
that no-one else on radio
plays what he plays

he asserting too that faeries
elves hobgoblins and the like
confederate at the bottom
of your rose garden)

Teaching Chess is he
or in his own grammar

Teaching Chess
to my Waldorf School stars
their smiles last forever

their smiles last forever
the young ones captured
by the game of chess

(it trains young minds
an emperor-ex declared
he who is still a player
not only of chess)

hopefully Shiloh’s crew
don’t become pawns
in that other game
(that mostly ageing men play)

horse-trading flesh-pressing
flesh-trading selling souls
for my-snout-first-comrade
deployed in the gravy boat

their smiles
might not last
forever