it’ll cost millions
these disasters said to be controllable,
millions of dollars in machinery, uranium,
atoms,
jobs,
millions of variables,
and the greater cost of lives
events can multiply
reactions that cannot be seen
heard
or tasted,
only the ultimate vibrations will be felt
too late for we millions-
only the blueprints will be forged,
alibis will be propagated-
there are no expedient alternatives for the populations
down at Three Mile Island,
Charlie welds a metal cylinder which ultimately encases a nuclear reaction.
and same Charlie drinks it off into the long night with his buddies
then tomorrow welds several more,
eventually replaced by other Charlies,
other cylinders.
is assuming perfection now a way of life?
billions of atoms of fire.
billions of centimeters of metal.
millions of seconds in time.
these and more variables cannot be ignored,
and most simply uncontrollable.
so hard to admit that these Charlies’s fallible?
hard ignoring the necessity to change this deadly energy paradigm?
when many millions are born desperate
and so much harmless energy thrives,
why choose to encase, confine, and combust isotopes
when more mingle intruding more energy
only to react into its inevitable nuclear eruption?
tabby cat trailing a moth
ready to spring,
lunch!
please convey to her the millions it will take to shut down those plants,
millions to satisfy our recklessly insatiable appetites for gadgets
that require more endless energy,
undying parasites
millions to admit we were mistaken,
a lesson corrupted
should lessons amount to pressing buttons?
when something can go wrong will it?
now that Pan’s Box’s been pried open,
can earth’s populace stay safeguarded?
how many millions of green lives will it take?
how many millions of warm-blooded-babies?
experts say unplugging nuclear reactors isn’t cost effective.
so what’s the price to survive?
billions? really?
and the Apollo Program cost $30 billion.
850 pounds of lunar rocks, sand and dust were delivered to earth.
7/20/79, Bisbee