Unnatural Existence | Gary Beck

The sparrows of Bryant Park
have a privileged life,
no natural predator
to threaten them.
The migrants,
warblers, juncos, chickadees,
not as aggressive,
do not disrupt
the feeding cycle.
But one day a homeless man
brought two cats on leashes
to the safe haven.
Ignorant birds
never saw a cat before,
instincts dormant
approached the felines
who sprang upon them,
biting and scratching
feathered dodos,
until the homeless man,
tired of savage slaughter,
took his cats away,
surviving sparrows
no wiser, nor better prepared
to escape  predation.

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.