CHAFING on flags of ebony and pearl, <br />My paladins are waiting. Loops of smoke <br />Stoop slowly from the coffee-cups, and curl <br />In thin fantastic patterns down the room <br />By cabinets of chinaware, to whirl <br />With milky-blue tobacco-steam, and fume <br />Together past our pipes, outside the door. <br />Soon may we lounge in silence, O my friend, <br />Behind those carven men-at-arms of chess <br />Dyed coral-red with dragon's blood, and spend <br />The night with noiseless warfare. Queens and rooks <br />With chiselled ivory warriors must contend <br />And counter-plots from old Arabian books <br />Be conjured to the march of knights and pawns.<br /><br />Kenneth Slessor<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/chessmen/
