There is a special surprise
when the system we despise,
yet use as much as we can,
collapses from an overdose
of collective greed.
Then the speculators wail
when brilliant investments fail
and cry for government help
for rescue from mistakes
that the public pays for.
So the men who made billions
and the men who made millions
have absolutely no concern
for those who lost jobs, homes, savings,
never lived in plush penthouses,
never sailed on mega-yachts,
never bought Picassos at auction,
just went to their jobs each day
expecting employer fairness
and learned the painful way
that profit comes before
the needs of the people.
Gary Beck has spent most of his adult life as a theater director, and as an art dealer when he couldn’t make a living in theater. He has 11 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 (Winter Goose Publishing). Fault Lines, Perceptions, Tremors and Perturbations will be published by Winter Goose Publishing. Conditioned Response (Nazar Look). Resonance (Dreaming Big Press). His novels include: Extreme Change (Cogwheel Press) Acts of Defiance (Artema Press). Flawed Connections (Black Rose Writing). Call to Valor will be published by Gnome on Pigs Productions. His short story collection, A Glimpse of Youth (Sweatshoppe Publications). Now I Accuse and other stories will be published by Winter Goose 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 literary magazines. He currently lives in New York City.
In Between Hangovers 