Zone of Alienation
(19 sq. miles-- Ukrainian officials estimate the area
will not be safe for human life for another 20,000 years.)
My eyes too dry for crying
ache and burn and squeeze out
viscous acid film that blurs the radio:
Ukranian woman tells of 1986,
young husband, unborn child,
Chernobyl their disaster--
evacuation, too late. Secrecy.
Radiation’s flaming plume
fallout’s black rain--
first the husband, then the newborn
stays only two hours: a girl.
Decades later her hoarded
words burn my eyes
too dry for crying.
Can it matter now, tears or not?
Buckets of water, oceans of fire?
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