Poems
by Gary Beck

 

Alien Relations

 

We sent the equivalent

of the Nina, or Half Moon

out of our solar system,

Voyager I,

Voyager II,

announcing

our existence to the galaxy.

If there’s alien life out there

and they’re more advanced

and notice our primitive messengers

and decide to visit us,

is it reasonable to assume

they will come in peace?

After all

when did human explorers

ever come in peace?

 

 

 

 

 

Spam

 

One hundred years ago

a great war ended

that brought innovation

to the peace time world

that was never really peaceful,

but the massive upheaval

had exhausted so many

there was little concern

for small conflicts,

as 19th century minds

tried to catch up

to  a frantic new pace

that animated life.

 

 

 

 

 

Shackles of Oppression

 

Capitalism has destroyed

the fabric of America,

offshoring, outsourcing,

reducing the unions

until they are too weak

to resist the oligarchs

who control almost everything,

leaving the rest of us in bondage.

 

 

 

 

 

The Lost

 

The mad walk city streets

mostly poor and desiccated,

raving and cursing wildly,

almost seeking to provoke

a violent response

to rabid outpourings

of irrationality,

attention-getting behavior

the last resort

of the mentally departed.

 

 

 

 

 

Lower Learning

 

When I was young

I didn’t know enough about government

to have any idea how it worked,

who made it run.

Like many other youths

I accepted at face value

what they taught in school,

which made government seem

a lot better than school

with boring rote learning,

teacher oppression, bullying.

But as I got older

I began to discover

school was the training ground

for all the abusers

that plague our nation

and it may have been constricting,

but it wasn’t chaotic

like the land I love.

 

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