Thursday, August 06, 2015

The Promise of Hiroshima


It was all so beautiful.
Mathematics could dissect reality itself,
Complex, and finely balanced,
A logan rock that moves with just a touch,
and through these mysteries
we came to understand
the energy constrained within a grain of sand.

Infinitesimal becomes
unbounded power.
One plane, one flash
One whole town gone to dust.
Nothing except a few skeletal lines
Some shadow where a man had been.
Silence, apart from screams.

For some, that was success.
And this is how it stays. We live
under the sword of Damocles
peace dangling by a hair,
our fallibility denied.
Living beneath the constant threat,
in wilful ignorance of death.

As if the sheer perfection of the science
could purge our politicians' faults.
As if the discipline
that led them to unlock the door
could somehow spread itself
into the corrupted soul and mind
of those whose stock in trade is lies.





  1. Richard Lawson
    24/7/2015

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