How the Hell Innocent is a Man
Who helped make the Atom Bomb?²
Perched at the ledge of Nuclear War –
We try to enter the idea of Impossibility³
Monsters are born here of Nuclear Anger⁴
Men Self-Deceived are busily cultivating, in
Nuclear Mushroom sheds – Amanita Buttons⁵
Gaze where the city of Hiroshima once stood:
And you can recognize Nothingness as both
Material Absence – and Spiritual Void⁶
The problem of Nuclear Disarmament
Is Problem number One: if not solved,
No other problem can ever be Solved⁷
Uranium Cumulus Mushrooms Burst
Sores upon our Empyrean Lawns⁸
Quick, Sunrise, come: before the
Mushroom Bomb Pollutes our
Air with Death & Viler Drugs⁹
Fallout, falling – Unheard¹⁰
¹ A nuclear state’s promise to protect a non-nuclear state
² Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
³ Chase Berggrun, Mostly His Apocalyptic Star Glitters Wondrously
⁴ Joy Harjo, A Map to the Next World
⁵ Denise Levertov, Rocky Flats
⁶ Shauna Osborn, Panic Stricken Uncertainties & the Business of Writing
⁷ Primo Levi tr. Raymond Rosenthal, Spears Become Shields
⁸ Roy Basler, Exodus
⁹ Langston Hughes, Junior Addict
¹⁰ William Stafford, Peace Walk