Receding Gambit

A chess player isn’t thinking
Ahead. A chess player’s thinking,

Given this board and what I know
Of all the patterns possible,

Which pattern would be best for me?
There’s no ahead. There’s just before

And what might change in what’s before.
Some change is inevitable.

Some change is hard to imagine,
Especially if it doesn’t

Closely resemble anything
That’s already happened before.

So the player scrutinizes
What’s on offer in the before,

But the before is vast, vaster
Than chess, and has no horizons

Except those that keep receding,
Receding being one way change

Renders unimaginable
All the patterns possible.