Gary Beck
Aquatint
Often stormy China sea
whispered by pungent ghosts
adrift on lost junks,
fifty ancestors deep,
harboring mysteries of decay.
British sailor, 1880 imperialist old,
riddled with pox....
Relics of rubber empires,
(blind to Tai Mountain)
Opium nights,
brotheled wenches of churning hips,
(yellow brother plots and schemes)
then home after eighteen years,
(no more lizards on the ceiling)
and Cora runs off with a gun-boat officer.
Waterfront gutter drunk,
singing raucous, whiskey songs....
Of youth....A woman....Unsyphilitic love....
A teardrop of filth ,
washed across exotic maps....
China sea
Bio:
Gary Beck's poetry has appeared in dozens of literary magazines. His plays and translations of Moliere, Aristophanes, and Sophocles have been produced Off-Broadway. His fiction has appeared in 3AM Magazine, Fullosia Press, EWG Presents, Nuvein Magazine, Vincent Brothers Review, The Journal, Short Stories Monthly and Bibliophilos. Excerpts from his recent novel of the '60's, 'Dark Strains,' appeared in Nuvein Magazine, Fulosia Press, L'Intrigue Magazine and Babel Magazine. He is a writer/director of award-winning social issue video documentaries.
