Gary Beck
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ARMS RACE
Stealth technology
will make a mockery
of crime detection
and civil insurrection.
Stealth tanks
muffle clanks.
Smart bombs
end calms.
Anti-missile missiles
seldom send epistles.
Helicopter gunships
give foes fat lips.
Laser aiming
is quite maiming.
G.I. Joe
still don’t know'.
CALIFORNIA VISION
As I walked the coast road
the morning mist covered unexpected valleys,
then a sudden unveiling of secret places
revealed treasures almost beyond enduring;
green slopes, dotted with cattle,
strayed from Texas to route 1 mountain crannies
that grazed near the surfer’s ocean,
while I hummed get along little doggie
to self-conscious California cowboys
thinking of their surf boards,
and a distant beach,
with giant breakers
slightly out of reach.
TOUR GUIDE
Come with me
along the crumbling streets of cities
swallowing transient tenants
in devouring yawns,
leaving only hats and gloves behind.
We pause a moment
on congested corners,
strutting or slinking
to homes, to stores, to schools,
through hazardous parks,
not yet immune to danger.
Gary Beck’s poetry has appeared in dozens of literary magazines. His recent fiction has been published in
numerous literary magazines. His chapbook 'The Conquest of Somalia' will be published by Cervena
Barva Press. His plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes, and Sophocles have been produced
Off-Broadway.
Stealth technology
will make a mockery
of crime detection
and civil insurrection.
Stealth tanks
muffle clanks.
Smart bombs
end calms.
Anti-missile missiles
seldom send epistles.
Helicopter gunships
give foes fat lips.
Laser aiming
is quite maiming.
G.I. Joe
still don’t know'.
CALIFORNIA VISION
As I walked the coast road
the morning mist covered unexpected valleys,
then a sudden unveiling of secret places
revealed treasures almost beyond enduring;
green slopes, dotted with cattle,
strayed from Texas to route 1 mountain crannies
that grazed near the surfer’s ocean,
while I hummed get along little doggie
to self-conscious California cowboys
thinking of their surf boards,
and a distant beach,
with giant breakers
slightly out of reach.
TOUR GUIDE
Come with me
along the crumbling streets of cities
swallowing transient tenants
in devouring yawns,
leaving only hats and gloves behind.
We pause a moment
on congested corners,
strutting or slinking
to homes, to stores, to schools,
through hazardous parks,
not yet immune to danger.
Gary Beck’s poetry has appeared in dozens of literary magazines. His recent fiction has been published in
numerous literary magazines. His chapbook 'The Conquest of Somalia' will be published by Cervena
Barva Press. His plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes, and Sophocles have been produced
Off-Broadway.
| Gary Beck |