Hiroshima, Nagasaki
Hiroshima, August
6th, 1945
Nagasaki, August
9th, 1945
140,000 dead and
wounded in Hiroshima
some 60,000 dead and
wounded in Nagasaki
numbers standing still
somewhere in a distant
ordinary summer
since then the wounded
have died, first many,
most, then fewer, but
all; finally
the children of the wounded
stillborn, dying
many, forever a
few, at last the
last; I stand in
my kitchen peeling
potatoes; the tap
runs, almost
drowning out the
children in the yard;
the children shout,
almost drowning out
the birds in the
trees; the birds
sing, almost
drowning out the whisper
of leaves in the wind;
the leaves whisper,
almost drowning
the sky with silence,
the sky with its light
and the light that almost
since then has recalled
atomic fire
a bit