Two Poems by Gary Beck

Gary Beck

Profit Corrupts

The tyranny of oil
strangles America,
ruthlessly corrupting
every industry
dependent on energy.
When the auto barons
opted to invest abroad,
rather than rebuild
failing production lines,
they collaborated
with providers of profit
on unregulated shores,
condemning those left behind
to diminishing comforts.

The Nature of Cities IX

Compressed gathering place
expanding, contracting,
remaining static,
each a known condition
of continuation.

Expansion brings
opportunities,
heightens competition
for limited resources,
allows consolation
in cultural pursuits
that tranquilize the stress
of urban existence.

The static city
may neither rise nor fall,
but sedates its dwellers
with diminished hopes,
disillusionment,
dreary expectations,
plodding repetitions.

Contraction means
the departure of youth
seeking a better tomorrow,
the closing of businesses,
abandonment of buildings,
the decline of services,
a terminal condition
that breeds decay, despair, death.

The laws of attraction
lure rural folk to cities,
weary of the struggle
with the consuming land.

They huddle together
for warmth, comfort, security,
rarely realizing
they are easier to control,
easier to oppress,
evolved to numerous targets
of weapons of mass destruction,
designed for overcrowded cities.