Poem – Quick Picks (By Gary Beck)

Quick Pics

A baseball player

wanting to win

stands for the National Anthem

hand on heart,

but not really listening

intent on getting a hit.

 

A concentration camp guard

wanting obedience

listens to a Beethoven sonata,

swept away by its beauty,

while his prisoners,

live in terror.

 

A business man

wanting greater profits

listens to classic rock on his IPOD

while signing the contract

that will move his factory

to another land,

costing thousands of jobs at home.

 

A politician

wanting more power

listens to whale music,

trying to sooth his seething mind

while plotting and scheming

for higher office,

at the expense of the people.

 

An immigrant

wanting a better life

listens to salsa,

while trying to quell her fears

that an irate president

frothing about dreamers,

will send her home.

 

Author Bio:

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 & Fault Lines (Winter Goose Publishing). 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), Flawed Connections (Black Rose Writing) and Call to Valor (Gnome on Pigs Productions). Sudden Conflicts will be published by Lillicat Publishers and State of Rage by Rainy Day Reads Publishing. 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.