Waiting Game

How many hours, how many days

have been wasted waiting, waiting
in the crowded DMV for your number
to be called, waiting patiently for the

prized package to arrive from Amazon?
You have lost count yet still you stand
in line hoping there is a last ticket left
when you eventually reach the window.

Time, always biding your time, a frittering
away of the commodity which will never
return the same. You wait for the phone
call accepting your application for the job.

You wait for the girlfriend who always
arrives late. You laugh, scoff at your
past military days when the norm was,
hurry up and wait. You twirl your thumbs,

nervously twitch your leg while flipping
through the pages of year-old Time and
Newsweek magazines in bland and stuffy
waiting room. You waited for your blood

to be drawn, waited for the results of the
cat scan which was performed a weel ago.
On pins and needles in restless anticipation,
you wait. And then, your name is called by

the nurse who ushers you into the cold
and sterile examination room, one of five
or six lining the hallway. You are not the
first to be seen, more than likely not the

last either...just another useless move
you’ve made on the Chess Board of Life.
You know it’s coming, don’t you, the call—
Check Mate? And yet, hope against hope,

you still wait. You’ve already lost your queen
and two bishops, what are your chances?                                                                            You snicker defiantly. Win or lose, it’s all                                                                            just a waiting game anyway.

Chris Hanch 7-11-18