Nuclear power is

all the blades of my backyard
incinerated instantaneously,
and all the blades around their dead
choking on radiation;

except the blades are people,
stories,
faces.

hundreds of thousands of faces
gone;
hundreds of thousands of voices
(silenced at once)

all from the last straw:
death
without courtroom
without lawyer
without trial

without hope.

Nuclear power is

massacre
of men, women, children,
babies.

But it gets worse.

Because nuclear power is

pollution
in the air
that we breathe,
the air
that earth breathes
as she gives birth to all her blessings.

the blessings:
flowers—roses, daisies, violets
all slit
by this mushroom taking root
in the sacred garden,
with radiation running
through the water
we drink.

Nuclear power is

power
that no one should have.

Nuclear power is

half-lives
(never empty, never full)
so that a particle
the size of my fingerprint
lasts longer
than the Bible, longer than any of our marks…
any of our marks…

Nuclear power is

cancer
caused not by God,
but by people
who hold the trigger
for
the sickness,
for
the cure.

The cure
is ourselves.

We need
to outlaw
any fission, any fusion
that would lead us
to bombings
of Hiroshima, Nagasaki.

We need
to shut down
any and all power plants
that would lead us
to meltdowns
of Chernobyl, Fukushima.

We need
to reason
not for death
not for cancer
not for death from cancer,
but for life
for health
for lives of health
(for peace.)

Did you know
that the sun
burns brighter, lasts longer,
has more power
in one square inch
than a nuclear plant
in one square mile?

Don’t you believe
that if we can fuse atoms
split atoms,
then we can harness
the power
of this unlimited resource?

Unlimited resource:
Unlimited hope.

And I hope, my friends,
that you look
towards the sky,
and see not a mushroom
trickling fear,
but a sunflower
bursting
with hope.