{"id":1465,"date":"2022-04-14T15:15:56","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T19:15:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/?page_id=1465"},"modified":"2022-04-15T14:42:45","modified_gmt":"2022-04-15T18:42:45","slug":"sean-beckett","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/sean-beckett\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean Beckett"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Effect of Ozone on Guinea Pigs<\/h2>\n

Originally published in\u00a0The Aleph Review<\/em><\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

He rose those nights hours before dawn, drove\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

to the lab,\u00a0 and pulled the guinea pigs out\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

of their ozone chambers. Then he would close\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

his eyes and doze until the sun\u2019s stiff shout\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

jostled him.\u00a0 The purpose: to discover\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

if ozone influenced asthma in those\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

rodents.\u00a0 The study failed to uncover,\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

over many months, anything of note.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing. This is scientific progress:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

a beat-up station wagon, my father\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

at the wheel, moving slowly towards a guess\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

at two am, rolling from one harbor\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

of lamplight to the next, asking questions\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

of pigs as, possibly, the dark lessens.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

 
\n <\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

July 1961<\/h2>\n

right foot planted<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

in cracked dirt\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

and packed asphalt\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

left leg cocked way back<\/span><\/p>\n

in the half second\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

before the can is kicked\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

a fleck of sweat\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

is ready to catapult<\/span><\/p>\n

from his outstretched left arm\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

in his room the hollow tuba<\/span><\/p>\n

cools down slowly<\/span><\/p>\n

blue notes condensing\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

under the tubes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

in the pale kitchen\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

mother bends into the oven\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

hands steady checking\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

if the edges are beginning to crisp\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

father\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

fifteen streets over\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

drives home five below\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the speed limit\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

in the can\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

about to be kicked\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the yellow cricket\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

is still\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

antennae sensing\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

something\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

about to\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

happen<\/span><\/p>\n

 
\n <\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

Lines Composed Under the Arthur Fiedler Footbridge<\/h2>\n

The conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Arthur Fiedler, was infatuated\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

with firefighting. He would drive\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

all over Boston to watch man battle combustion.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the crescendoing flames, the house awash\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

in warm lights, he may have heard percussion\u2014\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

or perhaps it was the farthest thing from\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

music he knew. We pass below the bridge\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

they named for him. The capsizing sun\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

pauses on the Charles and then plunges<\/span><\/p>\n

beneath its curtain. The night beats out\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

the blaze with the hiss of not one clap. \u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Sean Beckett is a poet, educator, and performer… and an extremely grateful recent graduate of BU.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Effect of Ozone on Guinea Pigs Originally published in\u00a0The Aleph Review   He rose those nights hours before dawn, drove\u00a0\u00a0 to the lab,\u00a0 and pulled the guinea pigs out\u00a0 of their ozone chambers. Then he would close\u00a0 his eyes and doze until the sun\u2019s stiff shout\u00a0 jostled him.\u00a0 The purpose: to discover\u00a0 if ozone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2391,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2391"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1465"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1496,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1465\/revisions\/1496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/236magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}