Operation REDWING 1956

Trinity scared me
when I went shopping for a film
and found the bomb.

In radioactive sunlight
a Pacific cloud
swirled and roared
insanely loud.

The Navajo
near Dog Island
north of Bikini Atoll
saw the white sand.

It was piercing my eye
while exploding nearby.

I wore dark glasses
and felt the sting
of this incredible thing.

My flesh burned
by super-heated air
once loved

now no longer there.

A kiloton
became a megaton

before the testing was done

and the dirty device
became clean

but what did that mean?

The dragon breath
meant an early death

in a roll of fire and scorn
crushing a rose
snapping a thorn

and a thousand or ten
or a million or five

living now

would be barely alive.