Gary Beck, 2/15/2016

Current Occupation: I am currently a writer
Former Occupation: I was formerly a director/playwrite.
Contact Information: Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director, and as an art dealer when he couldn’t make a living in theater. He has 11 published chapbooks. His poetry collections include: Days of Destruction (Skive Press), Expectations (Rogue Scholars Press). Dawn in Cities, Assault on Nature, Songs of a Clerk, Civilized Ways, Displays (Winter Goose Publishing). Perceptions, Fault Lines and Tremors will be published by Winter Goose Publishing. Conditioned Response (Nazar Look). His novels include: Extreme Change (Cogwheel Press) Acts of Defiance (Artema Press). Flawed Connections (Black Rose Writing). His short story collection, A Glimpse of Youth (Sweatshoppe Publications). His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway. His poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines. He currently lives in New York City.

 

#

Nothing Changes

I sit at my desk

with my IPad,

send an email

to a friend in France.

It gets there in seconds.

 

Across the street

at a construction site,

immigrant laborers

who can’t speak English

put up a scaffold,

the same way they did

in ancient Egypt.

 

Down the block,

four large men

carry a heavy rug,

just the way they did

in ancient Persia.

 

At the corner,

two men load a truck

the exact same way

two men loaded a cart

in the middle ages.

 

The progress of civilization

has given us

powerful machines,

electronic devices,

yet everywhere I look

we still do things by hand.

#

American Portrait (R.G.)

A hard-working family

came to America,

    immigrants

    like others,

before ethno-Americans

separated themselves

from the rest of the people.

 

A boy grew up

an average kid,

stayed out of trouble,

    liked by all.

 

When his brother

was killed at Pearl Harbor,

he joined the Navy,

felt fear of battle,

saw the horrors of war,

served in the Pacific,

    until the bomb

shattered the dream of empire.

 

He left a naive boy,

returned a changed man

stoically concealing

painful memories.

Yet a new confidence emerged,

    for he had endured

    the rigors of war,

like men and women

for countless ages,

survivors never the same.

 

So he married,

started a family,

went to work

for an aircraft company

that joined the spaceage.

    His abilities

were recognized,

he helped build the spaceship

that took men to the moon.

    And for a while

    all was well.

 

He was not an educated man.

yet he excelled

in the most sophisticated

      project on earth,

sending men to the moon.

 

And his talent and ability

      was recognized

by scientists, workers, astronauts,

for thorough, painstaking efforts

that would keep the spacefarers

    safe.

 

Then retirement crept up on him

and though calm outwardly

      he was lost at sea.

He moved to a Southern enclave

    of mostly seniors,

where again he excelled,

helping less able neighbors.

 

Meaningful work ended

      he played golf,

skillfully constructed

wooden cars, sleds,

    did chores,

but the absence of challenge

           became erosive.

 

His good temperament frayed,

      his health declined,

he lost weight, strength,

began to lose function,

  a frightening advent

for someone once so competent.

 

He became irritable, forgetful,

clarity of mind dissolved,

accidental falls took a toll

as mobility diminished,

control of bodily functions

    ebbed,

    until his family

could no longer care for him.

 

He was moved to a nursing home,

          bewildered,

          frightened,

      looking for his wife,

marooned in the hands of strangers

    who would never know

    what he was,

    only what he became,

just another patient,

     level of care

                     dependent

on an overburdened system.

#

They Will Not Quit

Belief in democracy

fostered by the wealthy

convinces the people

they are well off.

Sincere individuals

work for the betterment

of a flawed society,

unable to accept

the failures of the state

are deliberate,

ruthlessly designed

to separate

the rich from the poor.

#

Daily Toll

Illegal immigrants

get temporary work

from greedy employers,

who will not pay

union wages.

For a short while

there’s food on the table,

money in the pocket,

an illusion of belonging,

quickly shattered

with loss of job,

constant fear of visit

by immigration officers.

#

Travel Plans II

Now that I’m retired

I don’t go out much.

The landlord doesn’t provide

enough heat,

so I’m always cold.

I can’t complain,

or he’ll raise the rent,

which I can barely afford now.

I don’t eat very well,

but I still have my health.

Maybe I’ll move south next year.

There must be a small town

where I can live cheap

for my remaining years

and not be cold all the time.