Author: Gary Beck Source: https://www.polseguera.com/writers/writing-766_glimpses.html Glimpses Gary Beck/Glimpses   Coincidence? We survived the Cold War, though a few times obliteration murmured and defeated the Soviet Union by outspending the big, bad, bear. Yet ongoing threats to American security changed the nation, gave the oligarchs opportunity to consolidate wealth, move industry offshore so we no longer made things, moved the people off the land into unwelcoming cities, subsistence taken for granted, as long as trucks keep delivering food, other necessities, power keeps flowing to sustain cliff dwellers dependent on electronics. The bond of community is perilously frayed, except for dwindling good citizens who want to help neighbors. We eat in isolation rooms diverted by tv, the internet, less active than our fathers, less willing to face the fascists overturning our society, vandals eroding the constitution, thugs violating the law, crumbling infrastructure eroding travel, country and our non staturous leaders can not turn the tide of incipient disaster.     Disease Traditionally, doctors knew best and for a while we obeyed their instructions, except for the stubborn, the dimmer resisters. Then insurance companies inserted themselves into health treatment, determining how much they paid medical practitioners, severing direct relations to payer and payee, restricting how much insurance paid, thus changing a profession once independent now servants of actuarial tables.     Criminals I'm not as bad as Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, many others. What I've done wrong cannot compare to men of great evil, yet my wrongdoing weighs heavier on me than the great crimes inflicted on the innocent by human-rights abusers.     Excursion I was walking on a mountain side brooding about my failures, dissatisfaction the primary motivation for a new direction, answers elusive, spurring frustration, oblivious to a beautiful Spring day, when I came upon a wild blackberry bush bursting with large berries. I picked and picked, ate and ate until sated, went back to my cabin nothing resolved, but filled with great feelings for Nature's bounty.     Confusion One day it's warm and the sparrows sing: "It's Spring. It's Spring." The next day it's cold and the sparrows cry: "What happened to Spring?" In early January the trees were budding though winter was young. So many of us bred on concrete streets do not notice seasonal disorders, or we'd surely know the climate is a changing.   Glimpses is an unpublished poetry collection that takes brief looks at some of the problems that disturb us in this conflicted world:  'Coincidence', 'Disease', 'Criminals', 'Excursion', 'Confusion'.