The Rhyme of Red Geiger

The Geiger-counter glowed red,
‘Danger! Danger!’ were the words that it bled,
For on the coast, close to its edge,
A powerplant stood, battered and rent.

A tsunami had hit, walls had split,
A silo had cracked, atoms spat,
Temperatures grew, a rooftop blew,
And atoms freed adrift on the breeze.

I stood in a town, an abandoned town,
Just outside a restricted zone,
Of human life, there was none,
For all had fled in nuclear dread.

Yet, ‘Here,’ the authorities said,
‘Is beyond the lands peppered with death.’

The Geiger-counter glowed red,
‘Danger! Danger!’
Were the words it yet bled.

Find more by David Baresch in the Author Index.

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