Trinity

In a time before Ground Zero meant something else,
After our cousins Einstein, Teller, and Oppenheimer,
In an empty desert guarded by squat mountains,
Humanity took its first step into another age
With the detonation of a bomb named Trinity.
We viewed the Opening from miles away,
As creatures with fragile bodies must do.
Even from so far, far away, adrenaline prepares us
For the danger that will never come.
Our bodies could detect our agitated, sweaty state
If our minds weren’t so busy trying to contemplate
The magnitude of the moment.

Energy erupts from its atomic prison,
Bound in place since essentially the Beginning.
A chain reaction of self-destruction
Bursts from the plutonium core;
Illuminating the world as the sun does the earth.
If we were able to witness firsthand
The face of the sun, or of God,
I’m sure it would look quite similar to this?
Heat and light, being one and the same
Travel at the same speed,
Touching everything with white-hot plasma.
Anything and all things susceptible to fire
Begins to burn immediately after detonation.
Before temperature has a chance to elevate,
A uniform sphere of thick, boiling pressure
Expands spectacularly and destroys apathetically.
Silencing desert life for miles in every direction
Then, and for years to come.
The great fire born from the blast consumes all air
Then expels its radioactive breath.
With no atmosphere to maintain pressure,
The sinister cloud of debris slowly turns on itself.
The aftermath migrates toward Ground Zero,
Creating a column that raises a sinister, glowing halo,
Like a demon on its way to Heaven.

No modern army, neither Axis nor Allied
Could withstand such a destructive wind.
And that, I believe, is exactly why it was built
The mistake to end all mistakes.