Coffee and chess

Coffee and chess

Conversation starters

Of a kind, compartmentalised

Into outdoor activities

Coffee shop friendships

Raising the blood

Enough to drink another cup

Lively is a well-contested debate

There is no dog without a bone

Worrying the sparrows

Scavenging between the chair legs

Winning is not made easy

But is never taken home

As a medal of honour

Left at the table

With the dirty plates and empty cups.

Who began the woman or the man?

Is of no consequence

Once passed the opening gambit.

He brings her books

From time to time

Easy reads and special interest

She is on a pension

With little left for frippery

But what a history

To unfold in a series

Of reveals, newsreels, special correspondence

From the frontline of a lived life

So much in common

Without a sensual complication

To get in the way

Of a good interaction

Economic refugees

Too wedded to the past to build a future

They both carry secrets

Close to their chests,

So much has gone before,

He believes it is better that way

No misunderstandings to blur

The edges

No demand for more

Than is provided

The home is where the heart is

But there is a little piece of it

Left between them

On the chessboard

Waiting for the fall of a king

To end the game.