Grandcestor Deanne E. Gwinn repeatedly tried to warn the public about the dangers of nuclear reactor technology. The following is a poem she wrote after reading a news article. It’s unfortunate that the reactor industry ultimately proved too powerful to be restrained by public opinion. So many beautiful areas of the Earth are still off-limits to most life forms because of the political expediency of ignoring the vulnerability of rail transport.
“The NRC Approves New Nuclear Reactor Design”
Monterey County Herald, Friday Dec. 23, 2011
AP1000
by Deanne E Gwinn
Come evening, sun slips from their grasp
with mocking ease
to strand them in impoverished dark,
and they want fire:
the heat the light the power to rule.
Convening clans of insolence,
they cobble plans
to trap inferno with their hands
in man-made Hell
where metal melts and atoms broil.
Like wombs wherein the worlds were forged,
the Celsius soars
evincing human arrogance
with bounds surpassed
to smelt the heat from poisons cast.
Come evening, pride is on display
in night made day
the auto malls and empty halls
of high finance,
each edifice the dark assails.
Come evening, radon fogs the mines
from tailings heaped
and low-grade ore, while fuel rods spent
fill up the pools
so dirty bombs can ride the rails.