Nuclear Family Affair

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 Lucenz? 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.

Cross-posted at RevGalBlogPals for The Pastoral is Political.

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