Hiroshima

I haven't forgotten,
The fire rain,

and the warm seductive winds,
Or charred limbs,

children burnt.
Invisible plutonium deadly
Isotopic dust

and pain.

we grew in the shadow

of thermal threat

yet they said the war was cold

I turned and wept,

and feared

and stared eastward at the

rising sun

For one thousand

times the sun.

but they never touched

critical mass

and told me

that spontaneous fission

chain reactions spread

a pulse-

neutron propagation.

so how can I stay
In a world where absorption

of destruction

is optional?

the tidal wave relentless.