Breaking news this just in,
Russian medics have just discovered
a vaccine or cure for Covid-19
1 sprits of Novichok
1 cup if tea laced with Polonium - 210
Followed by a weekend mini city break
Taking in the 125 meter tall steeple
above Salisbury Cathedral
A symposium on fake news delivered
by Vlad Putin himself
A beginner's introduction to chemistry on the
periodic tables most toxic poisons
And a crash course in election
tampering
Then lunch a passing out ceremony
and certificate with matching gift set
And proverbial negative swab test resulting
in the all clear nothing to see here
Nostrovia vodka for everyone to celebrate
and toast our success
Dual Role
The factory was a dual role one
It was a great division of labour
And of resources making double the profit
On a Monday it made polonium
And on a Tuesday it made baby milk
And on a Wednesday it made anthrax
And on a Thursday it made flour
And on a Friday it made cyanide
And on a Saturday it made sugar
And on a Sunday it made strychnine
This was a factory of war and peace
It depended on the day
It was worked in three shifts
7 days a week
365 days a year
Feeding nation’s civilians
And poisoning the enemies
from Side of the Hill – Varied Poems... Nick Armbrister
I.
The great Albert Einstein
Would appreciate a fine wine,
And after sipping a little
He would play upon his fiddle
II.
The legendary chemist Linus Pauling
Found the hydrogen and atom bombs appalling,
And after winning one for chemistry he would not cease
Until he won another Nobel Prize for peace.
III.
Madame Marie Sklodowska Curie
Was just as famous as could be—
Amidst the fin-de-siècle pandemonium
She discovered radium and polonium.
it was a dark and stormy night
a flick of a bic
and a radioactive polonium glow
he said he went ballistic
the other day
it was all over an interpretation
of what,
a psychotic little smile
I'm just Sancho Panza
a sidekick in this life
it's all good
I suppose.
Hidden within Precambrian rock
Lies "a tiny mystery"
A veiled secret in the dark
A puzzling piece of history
A radioactive photograph
A polonium halo possibly
Buried in a cryptic curtain
Its secret may elude us
But what's certain
Should we presume to solve this riddle
We'll be hurled back in the middle
Of more dilemmas or enigmas endlessly
Published in the 2012 International Who's Who in Poetry
As "A Tiny Mystery"
Russian spy A. Litvinenko
Had no heart, for a status quo;
But, when he revealed his odium,
He earned the deadly polonium.