This Place Is Taken (03-04?)

Tit for tat,
this tic-tac-toe,
ex or zero,
one negation,
the other absence
Arabs invented
to complement more.

X is outside,
a letter for suffixes,
cross-road,
not bird’s foot.
to overstrike a space
and say hands off
x precludes
another system,
excludes the zero.

Zero leads to plus one.
X however is off-limits,
the square not for sale
when x lands there,
no-man’s land measured
in the space that zero made.

How level
the playing-field?
No fix possible,
a meager place,
no board like Risk,
no yardage.
Which is larger?

The latter’s promise
never actualized,
the former without clue.
No fixed size
for space for tic-tac-toe,
no city-state, no fortress
or hecatomb for treasure,
no No trespass sign
to nowhere:

Without a clue,
X naysays zero,
and zero denies x
a permanent fixture
in the matrix,

nine squares with borders
only to be assumed,
undrawn: no room to move.