Daniel Kearns didn’t believe he had much control over outcomes. Life came at him rapidly, inexplicably, and reacting was what mattered. The universe was a vague, dumb expression of indifference and he wasn’t the center of anything. This outlook was partly the influence of his father, who exhibited a Depression-era, knock-around humility now absent in the culture. But there was also his long, drawn-out ancestral inheritance, a French-Irish melancholia born in the hedgerows of Normandy. They said his people had been French Huguenots centuries earlier. The Catholics had reviled them, so they’d fled to Ireland, where they eventually became Catholic there anyway. It didn’t make any sense to him, but somehow the feeling of being lost, misplaced, had its origins in this generational saga, and he would have accepted this fate if he hadn’t thought so much about love and war.
Continue reading
Tag: War
Aging Process
Forgetful moments
alarming indicators
of the relentless approach
of deterioration,
subtracting the senses
from continuation,
the short supply of data
rapidly diminishing
ability to function.
Welcome to Afghanistan
The circling vultures
seeking meals ready to eat
prefer violent cultures
for the caterers they meet.
American troops will provide
modern ammo and arms
to tribesmen who reside
so close to war’s meat farms.
There is a tradition
that tribes sting like vipers
and fight best in position
when they can be snipers.
Loyalties are stratified,
bought, sold, or traded away
after being ratified
by those who prevail that day.
The war for democracy
is an arrogant invention
that deludes our society
in a wasteful intervention.
Ode to the City
The esprit of a city
expands, contracts,
in dynamic flux,
or is trapped in stasis
as the industrious strive,
exploiters and lunatics thrive,
and do-gooders try to endure
in the peculiar mélange
of the metropolitan hive,
throbbing, pulsing, urban horde,
ambitious, ruthless, kindless,
the frothing ingredients
of juxtaposed existence
indivisible
from its components.
Departure
Lilacs are the pain
striking recollection
of unintended separation
from a lost loved one,
an unexpected rejection
flowering in shock,
smashing continuation
of rich interludes.
Premature Signs
After a blanketing blizzard
covered the cowering city
for a cleansing interlude,
warmer weather snuck in,
deluding gullible birds
who began to sing happily
that hungry winter was over.
Disruptions
Snow clogs the city streets,
wind-blown into high drifts
preventing passage.
Urban dwellers complain
spoiled by ample services,
modern conveniences,
so far removed from nature
that winter’s demonstration
is a personal insult,
unable to conceive
that circumstances conspire
to thwart arrivals
at desired destinations.
Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director. Published chapbooks include: ‘Remembrance’, Origami Condom Press; ‘The Conquest of Somalia’, Cervena Barva Press; ‘The Dance of Hate’, Calliope Nerve Media; ‘Material Questions’, Silkworms Ink; ‘Dispossessed’, Medulla Press and ‘Mutilated Girls’, Heavy Hands Ink. His poetry collection ‘Days of Destruction’ was published by Skive Press; ‘Expectations’, Rogue Scholars Press; ‘Dawn in Cities’, Winter Goose Publishing; ‘Assault on Nature’, Winter Goose Publishing. ‘Songs of a Clerk’ and ‘Civilized Ways’ will be published by Winter Goose Publishing. His novel ‘Extreme Change’ was published by Cogwheel Press; ‘Acts of Defiance’ was published by Artema Press. His collection of short stories, ‘A Glimpse of Youth’ was published by 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.
Recent Comments