Sean Beckett
The Effect of Ozone on Guinea Pigs
Originally published in The Aleph Review
He rose those nights hours before dawn, drove
to the lab, and pulled the guinea pigs out
of their ozone chambers. Then he would close
his eyes and doze until the sun’s stiff shout
jostled him. The purpose: to discover
if ozone influenced asthma in those
rodents. The study failed to uncover,
over many months, anything of note.
Nothing. This is scientific progress:
a beat-up station wagon, my father
at the wheel, moving slowly towards a guess
at two am, rolling from one harbor
of lamplight to the next, asking questions
of pigs as, possibly, the dark lessens.
July 1961
right foot planted
in cracked dirt
and packed asphalt
left leg cocked way back
in the half second
before the can is kicked
a fleck of sweat
is ready to catapult
from his outstretched left arm
in his room the hollow tuba
cools down slowly
blue notes condensing
under the tubes
in the pale kitchen
mother bends into the oven
hands steady checking
if the edges are beginning to crisp
father
fifteen streets over
drives home five below
the speed limit
and
in the can
about to be kicked
the yellow cricket
is still
antennae sensing
something
about to
happen
Lines Composed Under the Arthur Fiedler Footbridge
The conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra,
Arthur Fiedler, was infatuated
with firefighting. He would drive
all over Boston to watch man battle combustion.
In the crescendoing flames, the house awash
in warm lights, he may have heard percussion—
or perhaps it was the farthest thing from
music he knew. We pass below the bridge
they named for him. The capsizing sun
pauses on the Charles and then plunges
beneath its curtain. The night beats out
the blaze with the hiss of not one clap.
