By Gary Beck
PROMPT — No one noticed ...
I once dreamed of a land
where all were free
with equal opportunity.
Grade school cured me of that. As I grew up
prejudice, discrimination,
hatred, violence
pervaded my country,
poisoning the home of democracy.
It took a while for me to learn
our rulers weren’t elected officials,
but obscure oligarchs
who bought legislators
for their own needs,
rather then the nation.
And when amoral corporations
abandoned America
for higher profit abroad,
removing a blue collar class
that resisted the bosses,
leaving a rust belt
to defile the landscape.
And year after year
more and more of our rights
were taken away
until our birthright is tarnished
by ruthless exploiters
of a once hopeful people.
Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director and worked as an art dealer when he couldn't earn a living in the theater. He has also been a tennis pro, a ditch digger and a salvage diver. 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 literary magazines and his published books include 26 poetry collections, 10 novels, 3 short story collections, 1 collection of essays, and 1 collection of one-act plays. Gary writes from New York City.