Author: Gary Beck
Source: https://www.polseguera.com/writers/writing-109_dawn-in-cities.html


Dawn in Cities


Dawn in Cities: 'Effluvia', 'Tidal Sweep', 'Fruitless Search', 'Hope', 'Doomed'

Effluvia

Before dawn

waves break loudest on beaches

when no one suns, or fumbles under blankets.

Morning light makes little whispers

and horizons are attracted

to sand dune men

trudging the dank shore

seeking lost treasure.





Tidal Sweep

Again in the silence of night

it is the woman who comes to me

for surrender until first light.

We met many dusks ago

and sojourned together,

until dawn drove her to the sea.

For she was a twilight lover,

compelled by mermaids of the morning

to clean the sands of lovers stains.







Fruitless Search

I kept a vigil,

driven from a thorny bed of sleep,

by ghostly visitant

who waved discoveries in gleaming hands.



Into the evening streets I rushed,

the calm, hazy sky and glistening lights

a seeming mockery of mysteries to come

on such a night of emanations.



I sought others,

hoping in the milling press to find

someone to share my neon appetite,

but nothing comes when sought in hunger.



How fast the streets were paced

by urgent, shuffling feet

fearing the brief expanse of night

would invite someone's fading.

Hours passed delivering the message,

unrevealed in fleeting motions.

No one left to meet in chance encounters,

no where left to go but home.



Nothing but another evening's desolation

gloating with many others,

leaving me marooned on lonely doorstep,

unconsoled by hints of dawn.





Hope

I have heard the rain hum evening

of my land's people

crying angry fears,

my land's people

raising a throbbing chant

surrendering our tomorrows.

Though come from once ship of trust,

fought hard and won,

stood tall 'over there',

in pride went far,

then faltered.

Not resolved

that conglomerates and cartels are continuations,

cycles always flexing shape and choice

and my people's land

is a young land,

learning to maintain the estate,

filling cities and forests with beginnings.

Growing

is my land's people.





Doomed

Evenings of gentle touch linger

like the sex sweet haunt of finger

gently stroking a lover's hair.

Past the waste bins of desire

the shadowed recollections of the liar

contract with audible despair.

We have walked the streets at dawn,

swallowed by the ravenous forgetting

of home and place and city,

where we live and have lived before,

by unused yesterday's devoured

of time, of face, or our passing

with sad detachment and bleak wonder,

fearing vision beyond confessing.

Uncertainty, ripped from bled imaginings,

while the graveyard tugs its ear and waits.



Gary Beck

Poems from 'Dawn in Cities' have appeared in: Alura, Blue Print Review, Bitterroot, Caravan, Decanto Poetry Magazine, Green's Magazine, Poem, Poetry Today, Portland Review, San Fernando Poetry Journal, Voices, Chantarelle's Notebook, The Innisfree Poetry Journal, Wolf Moon Press Journal, Istanbul Literary Review, Nashwaak Review, Poetry Monthly, The Persistent Mirage, Words on Paper, Contemporary Rhyme, Blue Fifth Review, Remark Poetry, Lucid Rhythms, Istanbul Literary Review, Written Word, Thick With Conviction, Munyori Poetry Journal, Rogue Poetry Review, Madswirl, Write Me A Metaphor, Starfish Poetry, Spokes, Concrete Meat Sheet, Publishing Genius, A Little Poetry, Sentinel Poetry Journal, RKVRY, Faraway Journal, Clearfield Review, Poet's Ink Review, Media Cake Magazine, Toronto Quarterly Review, The Commonline Project, Spark Bright Magazine, Ranfurly Review, Baltimore Is Reads, Farmhouse Magazine, The Ugly Tree, Pure Francis, Foundling Review and others.

Submitted on 18th July, 2009