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 theres alien life out there
and theyre 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 didnt 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 wasnt chaotic
like the land I love.
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