As long as I can remember,
I have always been
In a small, crowded bag,
With other pieces like me taking up space,
Most of them towering over me.

However,
Without any warning whatsoever,
The bag violently jerks up,
Causing my insides to rattle nosily,
And my companions to unintentionally land on me.

The bag speedily travels upward,
Turns over,
And after a loud unzipping sound,
Suddenly opens.

I accelerate towards the earth
With an ever-increasing speed.
It roughly meets me.
“Ouch!” I shout in my head.

There I lie,
Helpless,
Defenseless,
And seriously embarrassed,
Until a gentle hand hurriedly picks me up,
Stands me upright on a rubber square,
And does the same to my companions.
“What is going on?” I want to whisper.

After two hulking figures sit down,
Clasp hands briefly,
And press one side of a rectangular device,
I am quickly moved.
Over two squares, to be exact.

Soon enough,
After almost an eternity of tension-filled inactivity,
Another piece,
Identical to me,
But not the same color,
Ends up facing me.

After some more waiting,
One of my faithful companions,
Another pawn, to be exact,
Stands beside me.

My opposite-colored clone
Inexplicably moves sideways
And bumps my companion right off his square
Landing him off the board.
Somebody curses.

And so,
More and more pieces are brought out,
The game quickly becomes pretty crowded,
And soon enough,
I end up off the board.

Reuniting with my companions again,
We all take in the action
Like eager fans
At the Super Bowl.

However,
Just when I am about to doze off
From the lack of understanding alone,
I hear even more swearing.
Hands clasp again,
And I go back in the bag.

Once silence once more surrounds me,
I make a silent resolution
That now that I (sort of) understand
Just what all of us really do,
That I will try my very best
To play a much bigger part
Next time.