Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Poem #27

"Secret Garden, April 26, 1986"

The sudden bloom
of Chernobyl's flower
shoots up in the air--
a surprise this April spring day
Its seeds falling out
like active radio-
waves over Prypyat

It radiates like an invisible sun
spreading its rays far and wide
over Urkaine, Belarus, Russia
scorching the earth
to an arid char--
the forest blank with shock
the farmland useless and limp

No one whispers a word
No one says anything for two days
They want to keep this flower
to themselves, to keep
this beauty--four hundred times more
potent than Hiroshima--
to keep this beauty
a secret

*

[I wrote this poem on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which was yesterday. I sense there's more to this poem but as with every unfinished poem this month, I'm out of time. Go here for photos and here for a quick article on the anniversary.]

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