If you could have been
part of the population
in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
at ground zero
you would have seen
total annihilation
when the bombs were dropped
(Little Boy and Fat Man)
and if it weren't enough
you should become 'hibakusha'
victims of nuclear fallout radiation
the perpetrators censored the news
and only the survivors
were evidence all war must be stopped
You Make Me Smile
the diagnosis came as a shock
life altering-all came to a stop
several surgical scar forming resections
steady course of skin burning radiation
multiple courses of poisonous chemotherapy
grueling grind of gut-wrenching nausea
valleys of deep depression
alternate with hills of happiness
each day another day of life
totally different than the day before
through it all you have
managed to maintain your
sharp wit and sly humor
I am truly amazed that
despite the desperate circumstances
you can make me smile
the calm here is filled with your presence
i feel your energy come over me
as it lingers in the air i breathe
and paints a warm smile upon my face
i do not feel alone
it's surreal how there is hovering
that's tangible between the two dimensions
meanwhile this still looks much like
a processing plant but feels to me
more like a gateway where we said our last goodbyes
and i have come to bask in this energy
so no, i do not feel alone
i'm remembering how i waited
in this same room on this same chair
then you would suddenly come around the corner
such were the simple times
when i was there for you
and you were here for me
but still i feel your kinetic energy
like arms around my body
and do not feel alone
AP: 3rd place 2025, Honorable Mention 2026, Honorable Mention 2025
Radiation lobby,
filled with unspoken sense.
I see a community of fighters and partners.
The partners are
the curious who know.
They sit using books as blinders,
or sitting watching others.
They are family waiting.
The fighters are strugglers,
arriving with smiles or stone faces.
They are:
slow walkers
fast walkers
chair riders
cane holders,
or with chemo caps,
or cancer wigs.
Travelers
funneling through a journey of hope.
Given by greeters and nurses.
Cancers lessen
by treatment with
radium and cobalt sessions.
And then a bell rings,
for someone,
radiation is ending.
Now there is a light around you,
and you are free.
Still, we think of new others,
a cycle continues
with new faces same faces,
until cancer fades,
with no traces.
Radiation stings sweet
Rivaling the burn of
Razor blades through my soul
Ready to leave a scar
Rupturing the healing
Right before the climax
Reflected in your eyes
a tear in each eye
surviving the bad hair days
my tumor and I
both shrink from radiation
the treatments tear us apart
contrast for the word "tear"
sublime heat is the
balmy of your body
always radiating
in me a sun of
love...
Having failed yet another repair, on the leaking rods
I spit my liquified bowels all over the walls
Retching up toxic filth within
an expectoration of black lumpy phlegm
forms a pebbledash of grotesque sin
Some I recognize, some I can’t figure out
but it’s me, spewing cancer is my distinctive subtlety
carries my mark, the mark of a closet misanthropist
the splattered mucus develops into a mural
speckled with irradiated lies
Etching deep into the walls
a perfect reflection of my gangrenous soul
Instinctively eating the flesh off my hands
takes away the gnawing pain of paranoia
absolving my torments once and for all,
unencumbered at last, I now feel the truth, agony is real.
look at me, look inward at my outward humiliation
Bleeding out, upon his own sick soul
innards burning like hell
The walls turn molten
meltdown complete
By
David Kavanagh
A craft ever afloat
in dark endless doldrums.
The drifting aether-boat,
station of static hum.
Fallout: the lethal moat.
Recov’ry never comes.
I want to be just a woman,
Weak and dependent on her husband.
Life has already started to crack,
And the truth will come out.
I don't want to feel powerless,
I don't want everyone to be offended,
The days began to drag on dreary,
I realized that I had something to lose.
I always look for a spiritual light in people,
And even where there is eternal darkness.
I don't care who, how, or what they wear,
After all, whom I love, I decide for myself.
I believe that life is very valuable,
And everything in it has a deep meaning.
So ordered the Universe itself,
And so, you remember this thought.
I don't want to live in a world of radiation
And be responsible for everyone and everything.
This way you can destroy any nation
Any nonsense, as the law of life bearing.
Society does not always live correctly,
And sometimes calls a secret Vice the truth.
Stupid people think they hold the firmament,
No one has been able to tell them the truth yet.
Oh universe ye tellst to us thy tale,
thy megaphone part of a second old
fills all the vacuum in microwave
throughout the space ye darest to unfold.
So then more time passed than words might describe,
diverted by their dating with the stars
thy low cry was lost "electronics noise",
forgivest the limits of the species!
Fortune by their hunger of publishing
a profet's word of thy construct was found
the story of the beginning within
the silent global continuous sound.
The big bang of concept when theory
meets experience not scientist fear.
Radiation they said, could be deadly
if used right, it may save your life
That tumor you have, that's on your left lung
cannot be removed with a knife
They said it is pressed, very close to your heart
with even a "nick" you could die
There's only one option, it has to be nuked
five doses turned up really high
Side effects? Yes there can be many
and continue for more than a year
Making you think, you are still on the brink
and you just can't get rid of the fear
Your mind must be occupied daily
with distractions that take you away
You lay down to sleep and reality's back
this is the time you can pray
Uninterrupted you take all your prayers
and keep them close by in your mind
Use them to carry you through the next day
your prayers may be answered you find.....
Joint configurations of embellishments....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I said, I thought?
You know, Satan has a way
Of subverting the truth of light
Casting it within the blurry
The obscure and the vague....
Abstract views
Of murkened hue's, at best
Make believe things
That bind within the crucible....
This crusade, of wonderlust souls
Traveling to and fro, and yet
Grounded upon the nowhere?
Marching in unison, this concourse
To the beat, of deceivings drums....
Rising within a voice
Which they themsevles
Truly, do not even know?
Created to receive....
And, then to emit
The greatest horror show, of all
......Plank's.......
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~"Radiation Law!" ~
my knowledge on the
impact of radiation
is quite limited
but I do wonder
if radiation would be
in a brand new car
that was produced in
Japan after the earthquake
and the tsunami
if the water has
radiation, would the paint
on the car be safe?
do we realize that
dangerous radiation
impacts the whole world?
do we realize air,
water and nature will not
be safe for mankind?
sadly, inventions
without preparations for
disasters proceed
and mankind welcome
each with great expectations
to increase comfort
until the next time
a tradgedy occurs, and
many lives are lost
my skin is crawling
over radiation--will
it hit my sky soon?
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