GARY BECK - POEMS

Gary Beck spent his life as a theater director. He has had published; 25 poetry collections, 9 novels, 3 short story collections, a collection of essays and a book of one-act plays. He lives in NYC.
 

​Fractured America

​A president was elected
by a minority,
persuading coal miners
jobs would be coming back,
who were so desperate
they believed a liar
because he sounded convincing.
 
Many others fell for lies
and many who were fooled
still believe a liar
and his corrupt cohorts,
elected and appointed,
too ignorant and indifferent
to know the science of climate change,
to know about economics,
to recognize
the gifts to the rich
are thefts from the poor,
also undermining
the middle class.
 
Our once promising country
once known to the world
as the land of opportunity
is now beset on all sides
by an array of enemies
foreign and domestic,
assaulting our security.
 
Our leaders
elected and appointed
allow hatred to fester at home,
dissension to provoke danger abroad.
 
And the servants of power
are happy, rewarded generously
for betraying the people,
so the lords of profit can feast
while the rest of us worry
for the future of our children.

​Victim of Technology

​Like many who grew up
with earlier communications
we have evolved
and use Iphone, skype,
other modern marvels.
But unlike days past
if we forget
our personal device
there are no more phone booths.

​Foreboding

​Another year ends
and still the republic endures,
hopefully for another year
although perils abound,
a leadership unconcerned
with the dangers to the earth,
taking money from our citizens
and giving it to corporations,
removing the American Dream
from those who would enrich tomorrow.
 
I grew up during the Cold War,
lived with the madness of MAD,
grateful for the miracle
that we didn’t destroy each other.
Now I see enemies everywhere,
foreign and domestic,
intent on our destruction,
some more menacing than others.
And I cannot contain my fear
that many good people will suffer
when those elected and appointed
to tend the needs of the nation
are too greedy, too stupid, too uncaring
to fulfil responsibilities
to serve all Americans,
not just the lords of profit.

​Shortfall

​I do not know
if the lords of profit
know that lowering taxes
on amoral corporations
will mean insufficient funds
for Medicare, Medicaid
probably the military,
so when our children
struggle in poverty
in a Chinese dominated world
it will be no consolation
that the one percent
were too stupid
to preserve our future.

 

​Machine Learning VI

​Millions of ‘bot’ accounts
impersonating real people
roam social media platforms
promoting commercial products,
attacking political candidates
and sowing discord.
Their fake images and news
are the envy of our leaders
who still mostly mislead us manually.