Vulnerability
to Bishops
Sitting
in a packed lecture hall,
'Topics
Shakespeare'. Only five free spaces
all
diagonal from my seat
down
to the lectern, where
the
professor, a Renaissance man
well-past
his prime, fiddles
and
fumbles with his laptop,
the
projector, and other implements
of
the twenty-first century classroom.
After
a day of work
and
two classes,
I,
wrapped in a parka of fatigue,
drift
peacefully toward sleep,
safe
on either side, and front and back.
Protected
from all, except the flagrant
Achilles'
heel, the vacant diagonal seats
creating
a distinct vulnerability to bishops.
Jeff
Dupuis writes poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. His work has appeared
in The River Journal, The Acta Victoriana, and Blood Lotus Journal,
among others. In his off-hours Jeff likes to train in the martial
arts, or if nothing else, watch straight-to-DVD martial arts movies.
He currently lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
