Gary Beck

ERSATZ SURFERS

My buddy and I
go to the beach
weekend mornings
wearing wetsuits,
carrying longboards
and never go in the water.
We try to avoid real surfers
who make fun of us.
But we really don’t care
as long as we’re chick magnets,
attracting young tourist women
not here long enough
to find out we’re phonies.

TREASURE HUNTER

I wake each morning
just after sunrise
sweeping my metal detector
back and forth,
hand shovel, swag net,
always ready
for the big find
that’s never there.
The punk kid
goes out on his surfboard
every morning and insults me:
“Hey Pop. Find any treasure?
Ha, ha.”
One day
I’ll find something great,
maybe a rolex watch
and show him.

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, essays and plays have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines and his traditionally published books include 45 poetry collections, 18 novels, 4 short story collections, 2 collections of essays and 8 books of plays. Gary lives in New York City.