Nearly Noon, Tuesday

Written By John Peter Beck

Two-toned hearse
broken down

on the shoulder,
hood up and open

as a waiting grave,
bubble light dim

unmoving.
The driver stares

at the dead engine
and his watch,

one eye on his shattered
schedule, the other

on the slow turn
of eternity. All dressed up,

the passenger isn’t
going anywhere

and is in no hurry
to get there.

Editor’s note:
This poem was originally published on April 6th, 2013 in Lansing Online News, which is now defunct. We are grateful to give it a new home here at Aphor.

John Peter Beck

Raised in a milltown on Lake Michigan in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, John Peter Beck is a recently retired professor in the labor education program at Michigan State University where he still co-directs a program that focuses on labor history and the culture of the workplace, Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives. His poetry has been published in a number of journals including The Seattle Review, Another Chicago Magazine, The Louisville Review and Passages North among others.

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