White Sand and Temporary Oblivion
For an aching moment
I faced dazzling
Gypsum and glass as splinters
Of sunlight pierced the air
Bouncing bright off the landscape at
Alamogordo ---fat Cottonwoods and
not a tree in sight not
Here, the sight of the unholy Trinity
test
Blessed and blast
A fitting slant rhyme for our
slanted
times
askew at
1700 Silica Avenue in a decidedly
different Manhattan where no
Dandy boulevardier would dare strut.
Castle Bravo likewise
No place to dwell as we
Did our best
to incinerate the century
Trolling for a toll in the ashes of the atoll.
No sufficient payment was made.
But all that brightness
those purblind moments flirting
With nothingness all
retreated
Like genie to bottle
Heard whispering,
"I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds..."
Certain whispers linger
Portending brighter, more permanent
Non-being; so be it.
Categories:
alamogordo, angst,
Form: Blank verse
This desertscape dotted with feathers.
What need? I haven’t a need
for umbilical utensils utterly useless
on a Sanskrit road
long as the maiden’s Genghis apron
white as white gypsum in Alamogordo,
New Mexico.
Here you find blossoming curry spattered across
an ancient horizon
lulled by the dunes rattling the baritone basin,
and in America, in this most united of
Apache - Comanche - Navajo
estates, we gather nations through nuclear
hinges obtusely obliterated at White Sands National.
Categories:
alamogordo, abuse, america, racism,
Form: Sonnet
TRINITY TEST
“If a thousand suns were to rise in the heavens at the same time, the blaze of their light would resemble a little the supreme splendor of the Lord”(Bhagavad-Gita: Chapter 11, Verse 12)
“ When the soul looks upon the Divine Sun the brightness dazzles it ....and very often it remains completely blind, absorbed and amazed by all the wonders it sees” ( St. Teresa)
“Thy whole body shall be full of light” (Jesus Christ)
"If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One... I am become Death, the Shatterer of Worlds"-J. Robert Oppenheimer as he thought while chanting the verse 11.12 on seeing the first explosion of atom bomb in the desert of Alamogordo.
(Bhagavad-Gita: Chapter 11, Verse 12). Mark the words 'burst','death', 'shatterer'; these words are not there in the original verse.Oppenheimer was a scholar in Sanskrit as well.
Alamogordo, New Mexico,July 16, 1945
Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds
A waste land, Oppenheimer looked back.
© RAJAT KANTI CHAKRABARTY
28 October, 2014
Categories:
alamogordo, allegory, america, earth, war,
Form: Haiku
with thanks to ntzkae shange
I live in Alamogordo!
is this where you live?
I live here in Alamogordo,
I live on Zia Street,
my friend lives on Scenic Avenue,
do you live here in Alamogordo?
Sunlight,
falls round me like a sequence curtain,
as the mountain air cools my face,
cool like talavera tiles in the morning,
bright as roasting chili peppers,
my senses come alive!
I got peaceful nights where other people have
honking cars and sirens,
and an ocean of White Sand,
whose waves I surf on plastic sleds,
soaring above the basin a Stealth flies.
I live in Alamogordo!
live in it,
dance in it,
I'd even sing in it,
a coyote crooning its song,
howling falls so fulla enchantment,
You see, gaze at Sierra Blanca,
and find yourself,
find yourself in Alamogordo!
Categories:
alamogordo, inspirational,
Form: Free verse