How the hell innocent is a man
Who helped make the Atom Bomb?²
Men self-deceived are busily cultivating,
In nuclear mushroom sheds—Amanita Buttons.³
Monsters are born here of Nuclear Anger!⁴
Uranium cumulus mushrooms
Burst Sores upon Empyrean Lawns.⁵
Gaze where the city of Hiroshima once stood:
And you can recognize Nothingness as both
Material Absence—and Spiritual Void.⁶
Perched at the ledge of nuclear war—
We enter the idea of Impossibility:⁷
Fallout, falling—Unheard …⁸
The problem of Nuclear Disarmament is
Problem number one: if it is not solved,
No other problem can ever be Solved!⁹
Quick, Sunrise, come—before the
Mushroom bomb pollutes our air
With Death & viler drugs.¹⁰
¹ A nuclear state’s promise to protect a non-nuclear state
² Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle
³ Denise Levertov, Rocky Flats
⁴ Joy Harjo, A Map to the Next World
⁵ Roy Basler, Exodus
⁶ Shauna Osborn, Panic Stricken Uncertainties & the Business of Writing
⁷ Chase Berggrun, Mostly His Apocalyptic Star Glitters Wondrously
⁸ William Stafford, Peace Walk
⁹ Primo Levi tr. Raymond Rosenthal, Spears Become Shields
¹⁰ Langston Hughes, Junior Addict