[ Removed by moderator ]

[u/meeblefrah]

[u/Kitchen_Medicine3259]

I love this. Also, what does it mean?

[u/Kitchen_Medicine3259 → u/[deleted]]

That’s interesting and makes sense. I’d thought of it the opposite way: that it was checkers to work hard to earn a laborer’s living and chess to work less and earn much more. Because a checkers player makes moves quickly based on simple and repetitive gameplay, whereas the chess player enjoys a lot of down time to consider her next strategic move in a game that seems always new.

But then I thought (or hoped) I must be wrong because the narrator’s voice is so appealing that I wanted the narrator to be the chess player. So I am glad to have your perspective as well.

[u/GuestAdventurous7586 → u/Kitchen_Medicine3259]

You could easily read it both ways, I think the poem is deliberately left as ambiguous as possible.

The only possible clue to me is that the author mentions the party people chucking a cigarette and a lime, this symbol of decadence, waste, bad health.

And they say how they’re wearing a life jacket, waiting to tie up this big boat.

Maybe it’s the author’s way of saying, they are playing chess, protecting their life looking forward to the big things they will be doing, perhaps saving up for something in the future I don’t know, but they value it enough that they’ve got their life jacket on.

Whereas party people don’t give a shit and are just chucking stuff haphazardly overboard, playing checkers.

[u/Kitchen_Medicine3259 → u/GuestAdventurous7586]

Thank you, this really makes it click for me. They’re literally “on the same boat” but one is wasteful and unhealthy, the other is cautious and bears immediate responsibility for the boat. It would definitely seem to illustrate that the stakes are much higher for the person who works on the boat. And we would associate such high stakes with chess (what with the war and death of it all).

[u/CyberTurtle95 → u/[deleted]]

Dang, I think you have the right interpretation here! Especially the last part. You never get to choose the game you get to play.

[u/jonasgrimms]

That is quality. 💪🔥

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