Poetry

By

Gary Beck

 

 

Poor Plan

 

 

The American hope,

a stable Afghanistan

after years of training,

wasted billions,

remains a fantasy.

Afghan security forces

dangerously riddled

with unreliable soldiers,

erratic police officers,

suddenly turn weapons

on unsuspecting allies

in a pattern of attacks

that deepens distrust,

shatters cooperation.

If our soldiers

can’t trust Afghans

they won’t achieve

even limited goals,

so the Pentagon

should advise the president

once again we’ve overreached.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tradition

 

 

In the land of the fleeced

the home of the broke

some can afford expenditures

establishing new patterns

of extravagance

that shatter earlier values

that allowed a majority

to reach maturity

with minimal confusion

of social equality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Annual Meeting

 

 

At the U.N.

leaders come and go,

some pretending modesty,

most in full display

preening on the world stage,

all expenses paid

by the good old U.S.A.

for excessive pleasures

in the land of indulgence,

only united in one cause,

hatred of America.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Labels

 

 

Handy identification

animal, vegetable, mineral,

subjects, objects

named for convenience,

avoidance,

easy remembrance,

rarely indicate

the perils they present

to careless users.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Viewpoints

 

 

When the big, bad Russians

marched into Afghanistan

the capitalist world,

enraptured by the cold war,

howled in protest

and provided arms

for bandits, warlords,

fundamentalists,

to resist invasion,

praising them as patriots

when the battered Russians

finally departed.

Freedom-loving Americans

flew into Afghanistan

to bring democracy

to a theocracy,

and the muslim world

howled in outrage,

as the same bandits, warlords,

fundamentalists,

were now considered enemies,

armed with American weapons

resisting the incursion,

until the Americans

finally depart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gary Beck

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 and 3 more accepted for publication. 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, Perceptions (Winter Goose Publishing). Fault Lines, Tremors, Perturbations, Rude Awakenings and The Remission of Order will be published by Winter Goose Publishing. Conditioned Response (Nazar Look). Resonance (Dreaming Big Publications). His novels include: Extreme Change (Cogwheel Press) and Flawed Connections (Black Rose Writing). Call to Valor will be published by Gnome on Pigs Productions and Acts of Defiance will be published by Dreaming Big Publications. His short story collection, A Glimpse of Youth (Sweatshoppe Publications). Now I Accuse and other stories will be published by Winter Goose Publishing. 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.