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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