Pawns

If life were a game of chess most people would be pawns

Bottom of the barrel

Feeling used by the more "important": pieces

On the frontlines of their own lives

Every other piece is allowed to retreat, start over from where they began

But not the pawn

The pawn has to move forward

The pawn is forced to remain in perpetual danger to defend the more powerful pieces

The pawns are born to protect them

This is the way of the world

The homeless person on your walk to work cannot go back, they can only go forward

The single parent has no option but to press through every day

The poor urban youth put themselves on the frontline of their own lives everyday trying to get by while the world around them remains hostile

Those "important" pieces will not change their ways because they cannot change

No matter where they go, no matter what they do, they will be the same because being "important" is all they have ever known

They cannot fathom what it's like to be a pawn

They cannot bring themselves to defend the pawns

However, this is the advantage pawns have over the others

They can change

Of course, they need to push through hardship, adversity, half of the pieces trying to take them out while the other half are indifferent as long as they benefit

But if a pawn plays its cards right, fights hard enough, it can get to the other end of the board where it can change

And the piece that changed is special, it knows how important pawns can be

It knows the struggles that pawns go through

And it will have ability now to defend other pawns while they make their way down the board

But what do I know, this isn't life, it's just a game of chess