Desert Mushroom, 1957
Atoms for Peace
an educational film projected on a roll-down screen
Richfield High School, social studies class,
interviewd those who were there
after the first images we saw of what was wrought.
They were crouched in ditches,
some in bunkers
pierced with observation slots,
3...2...1
they shielded their eyes
at detonation,
saw the bones of their hands
x-rayed--
the bones of ther hands were revealed
but the flesh remained intact.
Young military men in thrall to the power
watched the shape rise
until the sky bloomed blinding red
and spread and spread.
It seemed, said seventeen year old,
private first class, Joel Healy
as if all the clouds of the sky
were on fire.