Tag Archives: nuclear

OBSERVE

OBSERVE

watch this poem
change on you

transform
before your very eyes

splitting
     of pathways, sliding
doors

two
    complete readings
whole new universes
brought into
being

in one
it goes Schrodinger
and the poor little cat
goes completely
zombie
    uncertain whether
when box
is open
it
   lives or
dies; is dead
          or alive

in another
it goes Oppenheimer
heads out
       to New Mexico
wipes

out
half
       of Japan

saw the film; he’s the man

and here you are
in state of
                 superposition

I have
never been super anything

neither
          in faith, nor reason

watch this poem watch
us both observe

DEVIL IN THE DORITOS


DEVIL IN THE DORITOS

the chips
I am eating are
flaming hot
off the scale as
regards their
Scoville rrating

each chip not a chip
as much as shot
of concentrated flame,
chemical fire
   calculated to build
up to a spike
and then
   the endophins come
floating
first in a dribble and
then
    in a stream, a tide of
feel good
a one with the Universe
though a
   furnace is raging

you in the Himalayas, up
on Everest
     about to summit K2

on every psychadelic music
record cover
            a picture of nirvana
(state, not
Seattle grunge band)

and redeemed by the fire,
purged by the near
nuclear
    (thing built
by Oppenheimer there in
New Mexico) a

picture of you

PLUNGE

PLUNGE

by all means
take
the plunge

by all means
rationalize your way clear
plunge
into bed with me

Benjamin and Joe
about to
play the
holocaust
card

cannot
help themselves
determined to
plumge us
into holiest
darkness

in the pursuit of
great principle wipe
out
   tiniest speck of life

stitch us all up good
everything sewn up
good and solid

God’s great
gamma rays

   like manna from
          above

softly
parachuting down

and me

          waiting for
birth of new universe
to have

any hope of loving you

so
   here this
my

                   suggestion
that you
do take the plunge

AND THE YELLOW FLOWERS

AND THE YELLOW FLOWERS

and the fierce yellow flowers
outside my bedroom

peered through the window
like
  security policemen

told me
harshly

      we are

all
  sunshine

in no
  uncertain terms

we are
all sunlight itching
to break out
as nuclear
fission

forever primed
but
  unable to explode

and the yellow flowers
hitting
    critical mass
    outside my bedroom

      now my former bedroom

trash talking as
              per usual but
I’m no longer
there to hear

FIELD THEORY

FIELD THEORY

a thermonuclear blast
that’s real loadshedding for you

have to
      figure out
lightning, atoms,
electromagnetic field
how they connect
what
    is the exact interplay
between the four forces

all this at
    a University

built
    from twigs
and leaves

so much needing
to be re-
invented

not least
ourselves

KING OF SWORDS

KING OF SWORDS

War is
not part

of my nature.
Said
    many prayers
had it
excommunicated.

Hiroshima
      is not
my business, neither
is it in my chemistry

my molecules do not
resonate with that
Einstein equation, are
left stone cold by
Oppenheimer’s
        Gita paraphrasing

should you, when you
slip curved Katana blade into
                                     my hand

I become aware
of the gravity

way
     beyond my capacity

                         very thought
of shearing, slicing flesh

turning
    my fingers to sushi

                for a moment
but then the power
and the craft

      such beauty in steel

steeling my spirit to point
I can do anything

kill or
be killed       let those
ancient dice roll

for here
      the rush comes

goes

      and maybe wounds, maybe
death, perhaps
   slaughter and havoc

maybe
       not a scratch, blood
to expatiate

peace in my heart: who knows,
can hazard
       a guess how true

and longlasting

      sigh of regret even
in victory with the sheathing
of such
      a blade.