King of the Castle

I stopped playing    
King of the Castle    
when I was about ten    
   
All that pushing and shoving    
to get to the top    
lost its appeal for me    
not because I was a girl    
   
I was a tomboy    
and could hold my own    
against any boy    
   
I preferred to watch    
others play the game    
from the freedom of a swing    
or tree    
   
Then I realized something    
I hadn't when playing the game    
because I was too busy trying to win    
or retain that crown    
   
The king was continuously pulled    
and knocked about, constantly    
having to defend him/herself    
from the onslaught    
   
That’s the price of the top    
isn’t it, in order to hold on    
to what is thought to be important      
   
But that wasn’t important to me    
anymore, still isn't    
in the grand scheme of things    
   
It was the foundation I noticed    
the cornerstones of the game    
that enabled players to climb    
   
The top is a fleeting ornament    
like the stolen capstone    
of the Great Pyramid in Egypt    
whose foundation    
though flaking after millennium    
would’ve still held it up    
   
When support crumbles    
without reinforcement    
everything crashes down    
   
And yet, there are still adults    
competitive spirits in the thick of it    
who care only about their wants    
and making a point    
   
Never seeing a different perspective    
they continue to wrestle    
to become King of the Castle    
      
I understand their desire    
because I savored it as a child    
but it left a bitter aftertaste in my mouth    
that never dissolved    
   
Now it's bittersweet    
and gives me hope    
If I could see things for what they were    
that young    
then I know others will too    
in their own time    
   
In the interim    
I'm rooting for players  
to win at least once  
to don the crown    
as long as they can    
   
Because in my experience    
you have to own something    
even for the briefest of moments    
to discover how truly toxic    
and vastly unimportant it is    

Only when we quit
do we truly win
~