White Flakes

[a]

white flakes floating
from skies that glowed                                              falling forever

children playing                                                        laughing merrily
in their first snow

when they were thirsty
they drank the
rainbow coloured water                                                     

1954 Rongelap

then they burned                                                      they were poisoned
then they cried
then they vomited                                                   their hair fell to the ground

                                                                       their fingernails fell from their fingers

[b]

The white men harnessed the powers of the gods
They were the gods, they believed this, playing with their new toys,

god is good and god is love and god will destroy the
Infidels, the Pagans, the Witches, the Jews, the Yellow Peril
and all the little brown children on the islands in the seas

[the disorderly reality of volcanic imagery named god
discreated white christian MAN in the image of HIM]

Lovers and Adulterers of the Volcanic god award themselves
Nobel Peace Prizes as they fast as they leave the world in Pieces

[c]

Leave the mothers in pieces giving birth to jellyfish babies
slipping bonelessly onto the birthing mats

[d]

god is white/ bleached/ American/ good/ he is on our side




Iri Ani (20th October 2001)

*I wrote this a long time ago in response to the narratives of Darlene Keju-Johnson (For the Good of Mankind) & Lynne Eknilang (Learning From Rongelap's Pain) found in de Ishtar, Zohl (ed) (1998) Pacific Women Speak Out for Independence and Denuclearisation*

Note:  This poem was originally posted (on another site) on the week that a United States representative condescended to attend the 65th anniversary of the first nuclear bomb attack on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.  Let us remember that the United States was the first (and remains the only) country ever to use an atomic weapon in warfare, obliterating Hiroshima (6th August 1945) and instantly killing 70,000 people.  Many thousands more would die later from the effects of radiation poisoning.  Three days later, the port city of Nagasaki was destroyed by a second atom bomb with the ultimate loss of 140,000 lives.  Let us also remember that the United States still holds the worlds biggest arsenal of nuclear weaponry anywhere.