Poetry

By

Gary Beck

September Song

Each year the U.N.

invites its members,

paid by the U.S.,

to come to New York City

a little tattered and run down

but still the financial capital

of the greedy world,

to say harsh things

about America,

overpay for our women,

drink, do drugs, carouse

as they never do at home,

flaunt our laws, insult us,

babble tirelessly

in the General Assembly

until entertainment time,

then rush into the night

to sate gross appetite,

’til at last the visit ends,

and they cast one last slur

at their hated host,

then fly home

smug, sated, still inflated

from a week of indulgence

that produced nothing

to help a troubled world.

Options

Redundancy

offers protection

from unexpected failure,

highly desirable

for electronic networks,

mechanical systems,

never practical

in human relations.

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. 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 (Winter Goose Publishing). Fault Lines, Perceptions, Tremors and Perturbations will be published by Winter Goose Publishing, Conditioned Response (Nazar Look) and Resonance (Dreaming Big Press). His novels include: Extreme Change (Cogwheel Press), Acts of Defiance (Artema Press) and Flawed Connections (Black Rose Writing). Call to Valor will be published by Gnome on Pigs Productions. 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.