"Hanford" by Dane Karnick

The Atomic Age is

Ordinary as thistle

Rising between shale and sandstone

As dehydration pesters

The leather-skinned site

Around restricted land

Elk forage close by

Plutonium's hometown at

The Columbia River

Near waves of sagebrush bowing

To the War Powers Act

Of confiscated acres

With grouse and rattlesnakes

Moving freely beyond

No trespassing orders

While wind across bluegrass

Mutters Nagasaki

Past radioactive tanks

On this scenic floodplain

That accepts battle like

The traffic of clouds