I was having a drink in one of those swimming
pool bars in Dubai after I found out it was you.
The blue pool bottom suddenly reminded me of
your eyes that were so beautiful and deep they
made me want to dive into them and swim naked.
They would also take on the glint of a predator
at the moment you began to play your intellectual
chess with someone in order to vie for "checkmate".
The thought of your eyes clouded over after those
moments of terror made me drink until my skin felt
as numb as my core and the water turned lifeless.
You were there for me when I got the scar on my
forehead and I remember how singing with you
cheered me up even though I knew it would be ugly.
I respected you for your convictions because
you lived by them even though they turned out
to be as misguided as I always said they were.
Only eleven shots fired and five people dead meant
they knew exactly what they were doing when they
watched you in order to set up well beforehand.
Like all such things in life your tragedy sadly
had as little affect on the world I could see around
me as it had on those that had murdered you.
Overweight package tourists sunned themselves near
the pool or glided through the water that for me had
become a weightless shroud I could no longer feel.
I knew it would have been the same for me if I had
been the one this time as so little of any of our lives
is directly noticed or valued by others in this world.
Yet you did have an affect on my life and I wish I
hadn't been proved right in all this...but "checkmate".

-- by Steve McKennon, August 2, 2004

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