Fukushima Fifty

Elemental power we did command,

Twice bringing disaster in this land

 

A weapon tamed for peace,

Restored again by the ocean's crease

 

So we fifty stand at the universal gate,

As the world watches us meet our fate

 

Oh the arrogance of man,

Again realized here in Japan

 

We fifty scared, and do not know,

Will the poison make our bodies glow?

 

Yet the beast must be contained,

So we continue as we were trained

 

Our death's are all assured,

Knowing we cannot be cured

 

We fifty continue to fight on,

Will they remember our sacrifice once gone?

 

Same sacrifice our father's made,

At Iwo Jima and Midway

 

The bomb that made us swore,

Never again to enter war

 

Now again we face atomic threat,

Unless the cosmos' thirst is met

 

We fifty who must quench the sun,

While the sea around us comes undone

 

We fifty meek, we fifty scared,

After all the schooling, unprepared

 

Will the poison hitch rides on jets?

Can we catch it with our nets?

 

Or how about eating iodine?

Screams the media's headline

 

How far will the poison spread?

Will it reach Americans in bed?

 

Our suits mask our united face,

As we fight Einstein's disgrace

 

Atomic forces we manipulate,

To power cities, to prove us great

 

But suddenly the ocean rumbled,

And 'fore nature mankind was humbled

 

Now we fifty destiny selected,

To fix man's arrogance collected

 

And so we press on towards death,

As the poison shortens breath

 

Will the world even miss me?

We the Fukushima Fifty.

Author's Note

first shot at poetry