Monday 26 July 2010

Children Of The Atom



CHILDREN OF THE ATOM
/ ‘BOMB CULTURE’

we were the first-breed
of radioactive seed,
hard-wired to the particle-drift,
of Los Alamos H-Bomb fall-out,
settling Bikini Atoll, inhaling
Hiroshima at every breath,
krypton-glow semen infection
at the moment of conception…

we are the mutant generation,
born different from those before,
strange spontaneous puberty-growths
and hair sprouting absurdly through
brain-damaged chemical-drug
exhaust-pollution half-lives,
seeing infinity through x-ray eyes
living longer on DNA irradiation,
…then we have Chernobyl children

we do not softly go into
that nuclear night, but ‘Howl’ in
amped-up Cold War sonic mayhem,
CND’d on megaton thermo-nuclear
atom-splitting Festival vomit,
into core countdown meltdown,
Helter-Skeltered on Robert Crumb
mutually-assured Vietcong megadeath
acid transfigurations and sometimes,
yes – I still catch that
plutonium-red photo-glow
at the back of your eyes

and now, through the
isotope-decay of my years
my hair’s thinning, eyes dimming,
teeth’ll be next, rad-count setting in,
finally getting me, like I always
knew it would…



Published in:-
‘MINOTAUR no.44’ (USA – March 2006)
‘YESTERDAY, TODAY & TOMORROW’ (Edit: Pete Presford: Malfunction) (UK – June 2007)

2 comments:

Gerald (SK14) said...

The old ones are the best!

Meysha Lestari said...

generations of the future..