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)