Sponging Up Succor I’m suffering through vinegary days, as if I’m Jesus at His Calvary. Arrested from my customary ways by modern versions of its harsh decree, I bend beneath the burden of my cross. Recalling laurels in Jerusalem, I’m painfully reminded of my loss who sport a fool’s cap for a diadem. As I secure my seat at […]
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Carousel of Marriage Harry and Grace had a carousel of marriage while it lasted. There were arguments galore and children by the score or so the neighbors thought as they counted kids running across their lawns causing divots to fly and dogs to bark, a canine tabernacle choir. Fireworks on the Fourth were peaceful in comparison. The kids would light their crackers in the yard while Harry and […]
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Plain Girl Pretty Rose was a plain girl from a small town. She sang in the choir, never missed Bible study, left for the big city after high school. She worked nights in a shanty diner next to a bar where working men gathered. Depending on how much the men had to drink Rose looked appealing but she ignored […]
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Everybody Don’t Have Somebody The man in the ER, sutured and bandaged, told the nurse there wasn’t anyone she could call to give him a lift home. He said he’d take a bus once he had a chance to check his wallet and see if he had any money. He didn’t have much to begin with, he said, and the […]
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A grey, blustery day And the sun breaks through More of a wink than a smile Reminding me To savor such moments For much is fleeting And often passes Unnoticed In the busy-ness of days Where we are pushed ever forward But when the wind has changed And the clouds linger It is the memory of such times That […]
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AT A DISTANCE Gently rolling, runneled hills, Colored like a daffodil. Rivulets to ocean spill Under cloudy skies. Atmosphere of shrouding haze Rising from the surface waves, Where beneath lie ancient caves Never brought to light. Yet this sky’s a different hue From what we’re accustomed to B Yellow, not a trace of blue, Dares to […]
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Prophylactic Measures Like any doctor versed in patient care, the campus carry, gun rights advocate had listened to the PhD’s despair. For students now bear guns, while poised to get an education in philosophy. She heard with empathy the gal’s concern that arguing could spell catastrophe, should prickly issues make the passions churn in those who have another point of […]
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Transactions Tourists stream through Bryant Park intent on destinations cultural, culinary, diverse entertainment, mostly shopping, acquiring goods too costly at home, pursuit of a bargain once a typical quest of Americans abroad. Now prosperous foreigners rummage our land as we once rummaged theirs. Gary Beck/Ignition Point ‘Ignition Point’ is an unpublished poetry collection that looks at some of […]
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MEET THE MADNESS A Providence twilight, late November, every man and woman dressed in gray, sliding in and out of panels or emerging from dark recesses, all faces plain, hair drab, eyes shut, tongues muted, and there, high up in the skyscrapers, mouths in windows pause mid-shriek, as, down by the riverside, water rats crack on scattered bones […]
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A voice says ‘cry’ A voce says ‘cry’ And I said, what shall I cry? All flash is grass, For all the beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the God blows upon it, Surely the people are grass. The grass withers the flower fades, But the word […]
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