Media
Powerful light splits the night.
Cameras and crew lust the suffering
that is the entertainment of the people.
Trapped in violet despair,
the helpless victims can’t escape
the consuming dance of TV.
© 2008 eMuse-
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Poems from Assault on Nature
By Gary Beck
Casualty
When I shall die
and am no longer there
in the momentary memory
we used to share,
remember me not
for what caused pain.
I left humanity,
abandoned friends, family
strangers and enemies.
Why shouldn’t they spurn
my need to return.
Pain was my father
it nurtured me,
love became my mother
and set me free.
Two Visions
I
Dawn in cities
is the quietest time,
before the daily sacrifices
of our citizens.
II
Money buys immunity
from responsibility
with comforting ingenuity.
Tick, Tock
Before we began to tell time
toilers urgently made haste,
while the unambitious lingered.
The daily course of life
was ordered, simple, clear;
sleep, rise, eat, fear,
regulated by guess or gods.
Sundial, hourglass, windup,
the hands began to turn
and mankind turned faster,
rushing to overtake
life’s departing moments.
Defeat
Weary me
and sullen you,
the night grows old,
the search grows cold
the last heart has but one pulse
and dissension shall be queen.
If I never wake
and remain the dream
and spend our nights in bitter myth,
like strained fingers creeping over Braille,
touch will never end my vision
for the midnight harpist strums,
plucks the dreamless melody
and I sing silent songs,
sincere as flower children’s pads,
while the plaster Buddha
squats and broods.
Author’s Bio
Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director and worked as an art dealer when he couldn't earn a living in the theater. He has also been a tennis pro, a ditch digger and a salvage diver. His original plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes and Sophocles have been produced Off Broadway and toured colleges and outdoor performance venues. He currently lives in New York City, where he's busy writing fiction and his short stories have recently appeared in numerous literary magazines.