Radiation
By: John W. Flukinger
Pain
Heat
Eternal
"We thought we did everything right."
Protocols, a safety test.
A miscalculation undid everything.
A hospital drowned in the screams of the dying,
The air choked with the stench of rot.
The skin blotched, red and green.
Ignatenko, a father-to-be,
His wife stands by his side,
Worried for his life.
Days come and gone.
The pain persists
The body withers, blisters and boils.
Cellular breakdown.
A life in shreds.
Such a little thing.
Invisible, timeless, everywhere.
In all things we touch.
From the mighty sun to humble microwave.
Radiation permeates.
Man is but a gnat to this godly entity.
Never created, never destroyed. Always there.
Man has tried to master it.
Split the atom for bombs or factories.
But radiation can't be mastered.
Too much hubris, a wrong decision
The radiation bursts forth.
With its fiery maw, it envelops all,
Marking them it's permanent lesson.
Ignatenko has died,
As did many others.
Victim of Radiation.
A killer it is,
If not handled right.
A force of Nature
Never to be mastered.
Unbending, Unyielding
Invisible and Timeless
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