enola gay drops her bomb and love clubs the world to death. violence is love the bomb which is never true.

jesus looks out at the world in a cocaine stare. the maggots wiggle and feed. his wound widens.

enola gays search for the x drug sniffing dog leads to great frustration. she searches every meticulous crack in the toxic waste desert west of cleveland. even though she discovers the aborted toxic waste embryo. there remains no sign of it.

all love rises out of violence and pain. suffering the ruse which hangs on that tree mute.

enola gay turns inward. what she sees there disturbs.

violence is love the bomb which is never true.

the boy with no grace loves her. but he knows she will not understand what is good for her. he insists love be returned to earth. slaps her twice across the face. punches her in the belly.

enola gay drops her bomb and love clubs the world to death.

the mute jesus stares blank. all hope of memory gone. bile streaks his legs. the tree. crows peck at the sores on his arms and legs. the eyes. his neck a pitiful instrument to store all heaviness. hope is gone. which is the birth of love. which is never truth.

in hiroshima thousands of strange voices sing of love. the black cinder rains down upon them. possessions never survive the test of love.

enola gays love reverberates around the cafe world.

ronny reagon stumbles the streets of detroit seeking his way home.

"does any one know where i am. i'm so lost. will you help me?"

"nancy. what should i do?"

can there be found any truth in the universe?

love (all ways) accompanies such pain and death. which is never truth. there being none.

survivor: it is the bright light of heaven opening above me. looking up i see the keen love of god. immediately my face dissolves so that i see the image of love in the destruction of earth. i sing a guttural song of praise for such holiness.

you have not before understood the lesson: suffering a ruse. pain and violence (all ways) accompanies love. which is never truth. there being none.

the boy with no grace accompanies love with his fists.

survivor: the firestorm of love encircles my home and children. we writhe in the agony love brings. hugging each child in order their skin sticks to my body so that when i let them go they fall singing the skeletal song of love.

this is a most beautiful and holy violence. americas love so great and powerful.

survivor: when i hear the monstrous voice of love exploding nearby i leap into the water tub. the boiling liquid caves my body into massive contortions. lobster hiroshima i die singing the love song of violence and pain.

thousands of candles float on the river of love. love the container which is never true. love violates all law and takes what it wants. love expels bile from the dead corpse of jesus. of hiroshima. of detroit. love rapes the earth. love the toxic waste desert west of cleveland. all is love. love is death is (all ways) not related to truth. there being none.

enola gays euphoria lasts but a few days when once again she is gnawed raw by the memory of it between her legs licking and biting. the memory so remarkable she soars in ecstatic orgasm.

love for the moment hangs around jesus.

thousands of candles float on the river of love. the river of pain. the hopeless river.

thousands of candles raise their flame. suddenly sprout wings. thousands of brightly colored birds fly into the night sky. thousands of stars that quickly flicker. die. then fall back black to the shore of the toxic waste desert west of cleveland.

there are no longer any stars to see.

survivor: i lay in the hospital. my stomach. the bile coming out both ends. in the immediacy of bright insight. the love of god. which is (all ways) america. vaporizes me. i sing a song of praise to shadowed being. the patients with me join in. we are pleased to praise such painful and violent love.

hypocentric love.

jesus hangs stunned. working on his tan he fidgets. which releases again his bowels.

"mother. how could you forsake me so?"

in the middle of each night the boy with no grace awakens to scream epithets.

"you whore. you slut. you fucking bitch. how could you do this to me? why don't you just leave."

such love longsuffering. praises to love. which is never truth. which (all ways) accompanies pain and violence.

survivors: we are playing hide and seek outside the school. it is a beautiful morning. we laugh and tease. in the remarkable moment bright sudden flames. we look at each other. we cannot recognize our friends. our skin dangles and hangs from our bodies. our uniforms torn and sheared. we are now the unbidden. the unhidden children of skeleton town. all praise for love in pain and violence. we crawl to the edge of the river. leaping in to die.

thousand of candles take wing to fly heavenward. the night sky an explosion of color and remarkable joy.

thousands of wingless candles flicker. die. fall blackened back to earth. death love. there being (all ways) no truth to tell.

river of hopeless despair. river of a thousand floating corpses.

river of sudden mercurial love.

survivors song: kill me. kill me. kill me. please. kill me.

there remaining such pleasure in this enormous love.

ronny reagon wanders lost amidst the streets of detroit.

"i've lost my way. will someone please help me?"

"nancy. what am i supposed to do?"

the only words to escape jesuses parched lips on the third or fourth day hanging on that bile covered tree. love in violent pain.

"kill me. kill me. kill me. please. kill me."

survivor: horrible green bile escapes my childs body. out nose mouth ears. he dies screaming the beauty of his fathers love.

ronny reagon stumbles along a street in central detroit. he has no idea where he is. or who. he is in the blissful illusion of collective love.

"ah. here's some water for you my son."

"here's a tomato. two."

"be brave. green bile is good. green is lush. the spring time color of new love."

"do you have any idea how i might get home?"

"nancy?"

ronny reagon supports the financing of americas love. escalates the destruction of heaven. there are no hapless acts of love.

skin and metal. flakes of brick red hot ash fall in a hailstorm of pitiful hope. sudden bursts of toxic waste dust off the desert west of cleveland.

two survivors embrace. ones face between the others shattered legs. the tongue wildly lavishing pain. which is (all ways) love. in the agony of final orgasm the other holds the head. in pushing removes the skin. skeletal angel of despair. scream heavenly orgasm of pain and violence. death love. there being (all ways) no truth to tell.

superficialities.

luann with a c basks on the beach west of tucson. her return unheralded. she wonders for only a moment where her friends. the survivors. might be. she loves the way the hot sun sweats into her body. the smell of the slight burn that turns to radiant tan. it is (all ways) good to be alive for luann with a c. she remains living a charmed life.

the government negotiator continues questioning the various survivors. to get at truth one must be strong and persistent. when he receives an answer not to his liking he pulls a chunk of dangling skin. removes it. most often there accompanies only silent screams. the pleasure of love.

your children are born with bird lips. with melted eyes. with dozens of arms toes legs fingers. two heads. no body. elongated craniums. crustaceous. some with feathers. wings. charred flesh. death love.

there are no stars remaining in the love filled blackened sky.

in her imagination. which is never reality. the last best face sees traps everywhere.

"i fear you are laying a trap for me."

"i fear being caught and caged."

"i fear."

"kill me. kill me. kill me. please. kill me."

jesus. mute. stares out of broken cocaine eyes. flinches once feeling the maggots holiness to stop infection.

for years green bile escapes your ears nose and mouth. you wretch in silent watchful agony. you cannot eat. you ask to die. but no one accompanies your wish.

you enter lay down beside the bloody rag body of the last best face on the tile floor of the mens room. wrap your arms around her. cushion her bruised and blackened head.

"there's too damn much of this kind of love in our world."

the only palatable kind. violent and painful. there is never truth to love. only the imagination. which is never reality.

luann with a c sips a margarita. sucks the salt from her lips. smiles. her tongue swells slightly. she lives a charmed life.

every thing is expendable. which is meaning. one.

note: the survivors narratives are derived from similar narratives cited in Day One: Before Hiroshima and After, by Peter Wyden.
 

Gary Lundy
Gary Lundy is a professor of english at the u of montana-western, in dillon, montana. His poems have appeared in numerous publications.