Mudlark No. 46 (2012)

Chernobyl

I memorize
leukocytes, colorless
nucleate cells, Strontium
90 (invisible flecks lodged
even now in my thyroid),
Calcium

89, half-life,
the cloud which passed
like a congested river
over California:

Those minuscule fish swam
whole into our naked bones,
and the eyes of the fish
were death—and for forty
years now, we have seeded
that desert which stretches far

far into the uncertain
future, our bodies
the reactors.

Susan Kelly-DeWitt | Question
Contents | Mudlark No. 46 (2012)