Spoon River Anthology

by Edgar Lee Masters

SECOND VOICE
I move the Turk.

FIRST VOICE
The game is tangled; where are we now?

SECOND VOICE
You’re dreaming worlds. I’m in the King row.
Move as you will, if I can’t wreck you
I’ll thwart you, harry you, rout you, check you.

FIRST VOICE
I’m tired. I’ll send for my Son to play.
I think he can beat you finally—

SECOND VOICE
Eh?

FIRST VOICE
I must preside at the stars’ convention.

SECOND VOICE
Very well, my lord, but I beg to mention
I’ll give this game my direct attention.

FIRST VOICE
A game indeed! But Truth is my quest.

SECOND VOICE
Beaten, you walk away with a jest.
I strike the table, I scatter the checkers.
(A rattle of a falling table and checkers flying over a floor.)
Aha! You armies and iron deckers,
Races and states in a cataclysm—
Now for a day of atheism!

(The screen vanishes and BEELZEBUB steps forward carrying a trumpet, which he blows faintly. Immediately LOKI and YOCARINDRA start up from the shadows of night.)