Aphelion Issue 293, Volume 28
September 2023
 
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A Station of the Uncertain

by David Baresch


I stood at a station of the uncertain, here, trains were delayed by seismic waves, yet on a platform a crowd grew and the sky above was the brightest of blue, but what was held within that air? The answer? Nobody knew.

For nearby, lies a barren coast, and on that coast lies radioactive sand, for this is Japan and the north eastern lands, the month is March, the year 2011, and just a few short hours have passed since a second atomic blast.

For on that coast, by a tsunami sea, there stands a nuclear power plant, and under the weight of a tsunamic strike radioactive casks were hit, they cracked, they split, and out of those silos a killer leaked.

Radiation freed, and that wave of death winged its way upon the breeze, darting unseen within the wild of the March winds. While on that platform, all was quiet, not a word was said and all there stared blankly ahead.

Seemingly, all were deep in thought, seemingly, with thoughts fraught, for to take a breath at that station there was indeed to dare, yet to breathe, this is our fragile mortal need.

And those shallow inhales were tinged with prayer, for to taste that air at was almost an invite to shorten one’s life, and all the while, time dragged by as time had never dragged before when, finally, a train arrived.

We boarded that train with a sense of relief, for that train gave some shelter against that nearby storm of brewing atomic weather.

The train pulled out, at stations it stopped, passengers got on, passengers got off, and all went on their homeward ways, their certainty thrown to the twists of fate.

Our hours together, they were but brief, a moment in time, a moment of fear, fear of the air, fear of a breath, and the scares cast wide of radioactive deaths.

The month was March, the year 2011, and I made my way to Narita Airport, I waited at a station, a station of the uncertain, and there I heard the sound of silence, I heard the din of fear, the fear of nuclear power that rained down very near.


© 2021 David Baresch

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