Resistance Poetry 2020.10
Power
Trapped in a mist-bound guest house in Nepal waiting for clear weather, I was taught to play Bagh-Chal by a Nepali Wharton graduate. He was a wonderful and patient teacher.
Bagh-Chal is a game of unequal power. One player controls four tigers, the other, twenty goats. The tigers try to eat the goats by leaping over them. Goats cannot kill tigers but, using their greater numbers, can immobilize them and protect their own.
When you begin learning the game, being a goat seems a hopeless proposition. You are destined to be eaten and fervently wish you had been born a tiger instead. But, over many games, the truth is revealed. A savvy herd can beat the tigers. The weak and numerous can blockade the strong and few.
Democracy is Bagh-Chal writ large. You know who the players are. Chances are, you are a goat.
Do not despair. Separated, tigers will pick you off one by one. Work together and avoid becoming lunch.
And now, the perfect pre election day poem for America:
