End Game

‘This is the end-game’, he said
sitting up in the ward for the last time
still a chess player making his last moves
routinely as the game played out
beyond any strategy he had left.
The stethoscoped referee, days later,
marked his sheet, making it clear
that this was a detail she had little time for.

The registrar read over these notes and frowned,
thought himself unable to record the result,
considering the moves invalid or wrongly noted,
but consulted, and only then reluctantly decided
with disapproval to make it possible
to hold a funeral. It was indeed a game

of endings played by rules
that changed with each move
and official dignity maintained
for all but the captured king.