How Many Women

How many women would drive themselves crazy
By arguing over a game of chess?
Not very many--the way things are going
There'll soon be one less!

Don't believe you, sweetie pie.

Listen--I had ambitions
How did I get waylaid?
How can such a flower,
A sensitive soul, a delicate child
Wind up as a nursemaid
Respectably set for the glittering prizes
Instead of which I landed you.

You'll get your prizes!
I'm ninety percent of the way to the top of the heap.

Thanks--ten percent--you got me cheap
No, no Florence--I meant we are ninety percent of the way.

How many women--articulate women, with
Something to shout about--spend their time
Playing a game in which silence is golden
And speaking a crime?

Maybe if he moved his king.

All of my struggles for qualification--my
Nights with Goethe and Proust
Recklessly abandoned
For you who thinks Checkov is king to G3
And Joyce my college roommate?
But then when I show you a move you can't fathom
I have to admit it feels great.

Great news for chess fans!
Yeah--that's how he did it--yes, that's how the communist plays!

Maybe I deserve a raise.