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 Gary Beck's poetry has appeared in dozens
of literary
magazines. His chapbook 'The Conquest of Somalia' will
be published by Cervenabarva Press. His recent fiction
has been published in numerous literary magazines. His
plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes, and
Sophocles have been produced Off-Broadway.
Childhood
Across the courtyard
the lurking eyes of night
spy on their neighbors.
The drone of rancid wives,
the howl of sour husbands
drowns out the screams
of neglected children.
The cry, the curse, the brutal hand
are all the children understand.
They already dread tomorrow,
foreseeing their harsh future.
For Tomorrow
We sing not greetings from charred lips
passioning mad lies and cruel inventions,
innocence foregone, though hungered for.
These tall hopes, swirled on uncalm waters.
Journies sweet additions to the soul
buoyed by a multiplicity of strangers
each a sum doomed to calculations
made in swift reckonings, our aloneness.
How strange the newness of an unknown land
the greener grass of imaginings
losing not self, nor scorning roots
birthing new seed in transportations.
Strife
In the eternal struggle
between the nobles
and the people,
the ranks of the forgotten
are filled by new recruits
who meet their untimely end,
victims of those who eat cake,
yet begrudge a crust of bread
to those who toil for them.
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