Gary Beck – 1 poem

Deaccession

 

As the city we love

submerges

   into decay,

stores closing everywhere

no one concerned enough

to stop decline,

the wealthy secure

in castles of comfort

  indifferent

to loss of jobs, homes,

and the people are silent,

  overwhelmed

by disaster waiting

to embrace us.

 

Conditioned by the media

to passively accept

threats to existence.

  we do not protest

the collapse of our future,

since it creeps up

  on stealthy paws,

rather than Goth invasion.

 

And as prosperity seeps away

  the privileged revel,

either too stupid to recognize

dependency on the people,

  or too uncaring,

engrossed in fleeting pleasures,

  blandly assuming

they’ll sail to safety

on mega-yachts,

find luxurious refuge

  in another land,

continue their feasting.

 

 

 

Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director. He has 14 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, Perceptions, Fault Lines, Tremors, Perturbations, Rude Awakenings and The Remission of Order (Winter Goose Publishing). Conditioned Response (Nazar Look), Virtual Living (Thurston Howl Publications), Blossoms of Decay, Expectations and Blunt Force (Wordcatcher Publishing). His  novels include Flawed Connections (Black Rose Writing), Call to Valor and Crumbling Ramparts (Gnome on Pig Productions), Sudden Conflicts (Lillicat Publishers). Acts of Defiance  (Wordcatcher Publishing). His short story collections include A Glimpse of Youth (Sweatshoppe Publications), Now I Accuse and other stories (Winter Goose Publishing) and Dogs Don’t Send Flowers and other stories (Wordcatcher Publishing). The Republic of Dreams and other essays (Gnome on Pig Productions). Feast or Famine and other one act-plays will be published by Wordcatcher 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 magazines. He lives in New York City.

Apologies for the publication delay!

Just a quick note to say sorry for the gap in publications! We’ve been busy reading through our Bindweed submission backlog, as well as contending with individual projects this month: a request for a full novel manuscript (Leilanie Stewart) and promoting a new poetry collection (Joseph Robert). We’ll be back to publishing more regularly now, so keep reading!

Leilanie and Joseph 🍃

Kenneth Pobo – 1 poem

A FLAT SWEETNESS

 

Ask him his favorite color.

He says blue.  I’m his best friend—

I know better.  He says a blue sky

is like a busted vein, prefers yellow

but keeps that a secret.  A man

 

of many secrets.  Raylene found out

about Juanita the waitress.

He said she was just helping him

with his popcorn popper.  She could

fix anything.  Raylene shrugs off his lies.

When he says, “Ray, I love you” she knows

he means himself.  She calls him

a snowball melting on a window sill.

The sun burns away all his lies,

 

leaves nothing.  Skip had a fight

with truth.  It happened in first grade.

He told the truth, that he had stolen

a dime from his teacher Mrs. Wright.

Expelled, his dad gave him a “whippin’.”

 

He walked away from truth.

It wasn’t reliable.  Coke—

until the fizz falls away and only

a flat sweetness remains.

 

 

 

 

Kenneth Pobo