Korchnoi

Ticked off the list of many lists
your lines still stick their searing mark
Across empty buildings, broken windows
a visage of squares, that burn.

You still turn
as did those nights
under the lights of an
eastern horizon,
still learn
as did those fights
under western skies.

The ways of dying in Leningrad
a tutorage of courage
as tanks honed in, and grandma
kept you in her heart
beneath smokey clouds
of a city under siege.

The city has never left you.

Ticked off a list of many lists
Like a pilgrim pacing through
destiny's misgiving secrets,
you found a path away from Pharaoh
to surge through barbed wire,
a hero.

In 64 squares, you discovered
the Elixir of Life,
and have like an Alchemist
found immortality.

I live a thousand lives in your games
more than any dream can conjure.

Thank you.