I recently read this book: Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats.
I couldn’t stop reading, even when I was horrified and frustrated by the government coverups, the nuclear disasters, and the persistent denial that plutonium dust in the wind around the general Denver area was a problem.
Still processing, I wrote this long haiku:
Fukushima still
Leaks. Nearly three years later,
Oceans and air fill
With poisons. Unknown:
their full power, permanence,
possibility.
West Coast counters ping.
Measuring high, off the charts.
Radiation moves.
Do we still recall
Chernobyl and Rocky Flats?
Who will be a voice
For Three-Mile Island
Or Hanford? Did we forget
Not so long ago
Destruction promised?
Mutually assured, we
Worked fevered, counting
Our efforts as so
Much patriotism. Safety
Was secondary.
Radiation lives
Up to its name, spreading out
In water and air.
In animals and
Dusting our salad leaves, we
Take every meal with
Delectable sides
Of plutonium, along
With other spices.
Mutual, assured
Destruction has become real.
Nuclear waste kills
Us before we can
Eliminate each other.
Still we don’t, won’t quit.
Don’t act. Stay silent,
Confused. Would our government
Lie? Cover up? Say
Something is quite safe
When it is killing us, our
Children, theirs, and theirs?
What cost: energy?
Bomb stockpile must equal X.
When is it enough
Proliferation?
For any country? Person?
When does will it end?
This is my Father’s
World. And my children’s. Neighbors’
And my enemies’.
Will I pray with my
Feet, hands, voice, dollars, Spirit.
Even if it feels
Futile? Otherwise
Poison hisses over both
Apples and tuna.
Cleaning and clearing
Deserve our every effort
Since mutually
Assured blessings are
Certainly preferable
For all creation.
Fukushima still
Leaks. Nearly three years later,
Oceans and air fill
With poisons. Unknown:
their full power, permanence,
possibility.
Faith, Grace, and Hope 