Christine Beck holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing degree from Southern Connecticut State University. She is the author of Blinding Light (Grayson Books 2013) and I’m Dating Myself, forthcoming from Dancing Girl Press. Her collection, The Charlotte Chronicles, won a mini-chapbook award and was published by Centrifugal Eye in 2013. She teaches poetry, creative writing and literature at The University of Hartford, Southern Connecticut State University and in private workshops. Christine Beck is a former president of the Connecticut Poetry Society, a board member of Riverwood Poetry Series, and is currently Poet Laureate of the Town of West Hartford.
Her website is www.ChristineBeck.net
People Like You
bought Fifty Shades of Gray on Amazon.com,
watched Casa Blanca on ClassicFilms.com,
imagined rain forests in Costa Rica
on RomanticGetaways.com.
People like you toyed with taking
lessons at YouCanTangoToo.com.
People like you almost registered
for The Romantic Poets on Great Courses.com.
People like you wonder
about people like you,
what they do,
where they can be found,
when all around it seems
there are no people like you.
The people at Panera are not like you.
They drive Subarus and order double
lattes, clustered elbows linked to
more friends than a soccer team.
Even the people at the library
are not people like you,
what with the jazz piano Sundays,
the New Yorker discussion groups,
the cheerful multicolored couches
designed for conversation.
People like you want their rendezvous
remote, their flamenco skirts a fantasy.
People like you want to keep their partner
at arms-length from their sweaty flesh.