play the game (queen music in the background)

what is this game i see you play? it looks so weird but fun,
oh, now one hides, and then one jumps, and why does that one run?
it feels a match where one gives chase and prances, dances, spurns,
but then like a non-sequitur, the other does in turn!

i toss a ball against the wall, it's returned with due force,
then to and for, and back again, with nary a brief pause;
when suddenly, we drop our all, and whereforth the ball goes?
is no concur, you've missed the point, it's of who next now throws!

but wait, there's more, with sleight of hand, what false is now made true,
with magic words and mirrored glass, we've deceived, misconstrued;
so why do what? that chase, that dance, what essence did it pass?
its purpose was, to win, of course, and make it such that thus:
that when one's won, the other's, too, but play the game for fun,
when no longer can you tell start from end, then both are one.

oh, yet again, i've missed the point, i still don't get this game,
who keeps the score? am i ahead? or is the tally same?
oh, my, you say, i've always lost? how's that, we've but begun!
(for anything that gives you points is all under the sun).

so tell me not, the rules of play, derived from calvinball,
for if it were that one could win, without speaking in drawl -
if we hit that bullseye, all the dominoes will fall
like a house of cards - checkmate! (hooray, we've won nothing at all).