What shall my west hurt me? As west and east
In all flat maps—and I am one—are one,
So death doth touch the Resurrection.
—John Donne, “Hymn to God, My God, in my Sickness”
*
did the nurses close
their eyes did even
one of them hold up
her arms and stiffen against
the air cracking apart
before the hospital disappeared
*
Alamogordo at the top of Jornada del Muerto
P.O. Box 1663
Sante Fe, New Mexico
a chance to steal the fire
*
the cargo arrived in a black sedan
at the McDonald ranch which served
as a modest ramada and was soon installed
inside the “Gadget,” Y-1561, a squat thing
stuffed with a snare of wires and switches
which could be tripped in a storm.
it would rise steadily to the top of the 100’
tower into what seemed to be a blue shine
lifted by men in hats and tee-shirts and heat.
in another picture, the device
seems to be covered in patches
as if swaddled or bandaged for wounds.
no one knew for sure
what would happen, but they might
get lucky and things would turn out ok.
it would be a game-changer if it went off
and the ranch where they had sheltered
would be gone in a poof
along with creatures for miles around
and maybe sooner or later the natives
and a few others who were raising sheep
first thing (5:30 a.m.) July 16, 1945—proof positive.
the gadget went off in an enormous shroud
and a blast of heat seared across the desert
winds that could have burnt them dead
The sky erupted with the first light of the nuclear age.
It was, one observer thought, "when God said,
'Let There Be Light.'" And “A loud cry filled the air.”
One witness said the glory of the Lord
shone round about them.
Another would later remember,
some laughed, some cried, most were silent.
*
The soldiers watched in goggles and dog tags
under a "clarity and beauty that cannot be described”
and a flood of "white light like the end of the world"
which could have been "the moment of creation".
The "doctor" announced “the little boy
is as husky as his big brother,” a triumphant
official later noted. He could see “The light
in his eyes" and "heard his screams
from here to my farm."
Within hours the glad tidings
reached a hopeful Truman
who rejoiced like a proud father.
He saw the light
and rejoiced in his earnings.
He could play his hand.
They were all-in now.
*
The soldiers stood in the desert hurricanes where the boy in the
Orpheum Theatre watched and the voice of God spoke. Said Adam
Bomb. I am become the shatterer of worlds.
The soldiers were game. They were unarmed except for the
glinting amulets they dangled against hurt and erasure. They
covered their eyes, wore wafers that in death they would not be
lost. In all probability they would come to no harm.
When the sky ripped open the soldiers
saw the bones in their hands, saw clean
through their friends. Saw the light.
The men had tried their luck in Nevada. They did not know that
their lives, and their own kids’, and those of the people gathering
the green glass called trinitite for their dresses, would be
perforated. Nor would the Hispanic locals know, whose farms
bordered the test site. Nor were the downwinders told, the lethal
winds would reach them, while they kept track of their sheep and
hunched like armadillos before the storm.
The McDonald ranch was obliterated.
A poker-faced Truman said
he would give the Japanese
one last chance.
*
As a special prize, three weeks after Trinity,
taking care to keep it a surprise, someone would
send a share of the jack-pot on to Japan
where gambling (except among gangsters)
was frowned upon. Send it twice.
Just to be sure.
They weren’t taking any chances.
A group of men wheeled out the bomb
— it looked like an egg, someone said —
“as if it were a patient on a hospital gurney.”
They eased Fat Boy into
the swollen belly of the Enola Gay,
and gathered around it, looking concerned,
solicitous some might have said.
Tibbetts, the pilot, had christened the plane after his mother
and it became “Dimples 82” for the mission.
When the twelve-man crew delivered Fat Boy
the "Great Artiste" and “Necessary Evil”
would keep watch.
Those who flew the secret mission did or did not
believe in talismans to dispel misfortune
or spells to ward off disaster
though they joined in the prayers before departing
and some did bring on board a few items—
the photo of a wife and a daughter, a tiny doll,
a bible, and a baseball cap from the Brooklyn Dodgers.
It was Aug 6, still early, and someone might
pull the winning number: Under the B: 29.
When they lift into the stars
that are prickling the ocean sky
the control panel glows ethereally
leads them through the deep dark night
the cabin feels warm, cozy
They were determined to send the good news
with “Little Boy” and then “Fat Man” too.
Time to pay up.
They had stolen the light and
they will ferry it across the darkness
*
The morning is propitious — a clear “cerulean” sky.
Visibility good, the Straight Flush reports.
They will have a good shot at it.
"All clear" the Japanese defence system assures the citizens
just before the crew arrives at Hiroshima
and the bombardier cries out “I see it!”
Until the sky blossoms
in a golden chrysanthemum,
the crew do not know that many
will instantly turn to vapour
and vanish from the earth without a trace.
Nor do they know that mothers will wander
with dead babies in their arms, and people
whose skin melts from their bodies
and hangs like rags and those blinded
will stagger from the radiance
pinched from a fennel seed
they carry away within themselves
and some, like gods, will leave
their shadows on the stones.
The crew may or may not have known
when they delivered Little Boy.
The cockpit would glow with an eerie light
and the goggled navigator on Necessary Evil
would be astonished to see the light
so bright he could have read
the fine print in his pocket Bible.
when the bomb falls,
smack-dab on Shima
Surgical Hospital
modeled on American example
it obliterates all of the nurses,
doctors, and patients in it
who did not see the light
open in a dazzling flash
nor watch it engorge
the city in a tumour
though one of the crew did
and shouted."Look at that!
Look at that!"
"Did you see that!"
The crew reported "Conditions normal
in airplane after delivery." They will leave
nothing standing but the graveyards.
The Japanese high command didn't see it coming.
Neither did the citizens of Hiroshima.
They didn't see a thing.
*
the crew return in stunned silence
twelve hours to Tinian,
"an industrial marvel,
an emblem of American ingenuity"
back to the lights and cameras and
triumph on a small island until recently
covered in sugarcane
*
second time around, Kokura,
when its number comes up —
talk about luck —
is obscured by
cloud and so does not get to see
something like an egg
breaking through the morning
into the small Nagasaki gardens
that tinkle like charms
*
a few days later two of the crew would
visit a devastated Nagasaki
to see what they had accomplished
and to buy a few souvenirs.
that didn't cost much.
we were typical American tourists,
the pilot would say,
they would do it again...
*
For days after the Trinity explosion,
ash fell like dirty snow in New Mexico,
drifted into wells and cisterns sieved inside
windows for days fell into crops onto pastures.
It crept into gardens, yards, streets, it invaded schools,
churches, hospitals, passed into the eyes of the near and distant...