ONE PAWN

Got me cornered, trapped

for all the lofty connections,

royal imperatives and lineage -

disempowered, only authorised by remote decrees;

this totem and feudal vestige, 

stuck.

Tiddly pawns with their limited range - persistent, small scale,

inch by inch, decapitating warriors and bishops -

instating unhereditary, mutant queens;

effective as initial cannon fodder,

kamikaze heroes,

 unruly subversives and far-seeing

dreamers.

There are few options and ways to move:

they are biding-time tacticians,

 yet arch, long-term knowers

 of direction, tipping points,

close-up volte-faces

or plebeian usurper matriarchs -

with tip-toed stealth.

Power of the people, personified.