after Nagasaki

we had learned to bomb
the world

war ended by avatar
of I am death to
cite
and
secularly
to benedict

by us
to bless an industry
of
products that should never
be employed

and so
inutility
as the market must stay glutted
with inventory unused
by
desperate hope

bad for business

bad
for sickness

bad for all the death
from
skin softened from bone
all senses blinded
and

then
a memorial to haunting pain

the ghosts of one by one
and of
the nations

we could claim ignorance

we did not know
or
appreciate the scale

we only wanted victory
a conclusion

if
at a cost
of febrile Earth

c l couch


photo by Sajan Rajbahak on Unsplash