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The Atomic Café stays with me, over
even the most perfect of days.
I think about the arrogance of power
and how most people live in a daze.

I think on the geniality of the average citizen, 
how willing, how trusting, how guileless they are.
The salt of the earth, reasonable men,
seen by their politicians as game that is fair.

Fair as in good pickings.
Fare as in someone who will pay.
Fair as in these are just the midlings.
Fair as in to assume they will do what we say.

I am sick to death of a society
that divides up into predator and prey.
One group seeking only comfort and security
and the other group seeks only power and display.

Who were these men of the Fifties,
that explained to us as if we were children,
that, yes, we could destroy whole cities,
but, yes, atomic power could also save men.

We bought their maps and graphs and cute cartoon
of jovial Mr. Atom and how he could help us,
while in hospitals these devious men of doom
experimented on innocents with plutonium inserts.

They explained at great length the threat from outside,
moved trusting men at will with just the sound of a siren,
sprayed cities with virus to see how it spread and subside.
gave acid to the unknowing to see how it affected the brain.

They demonstrated with a flourish the benefits of "our system"
and we in our search for comfort bought a new car and color TV.
They felt free in our bought silence not to mention Iran,
Guatemala, or black budgets we were not allowed to see.

All these are quite obvious some fifty years past.
Those guilty men at least thought it necessary to explain
their actions and are with us no longer. Their descendants at last
have clearly learned the game, our understanding of issues is lame.

The public, once bought, has no need for explanation, or outcome.
Constant fear is now the new game.
We all now mutter platitudes of gain and freedom,
and live our lives as if they both mean the same.
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