Pukapuka Poem #21 'Nuclear Family' - Michael O'Leary

Nuclear Family – A fragment

In dreams I walked

            Through crowded, confused streets

            Where people, scurrying like rats

                                                on a sinking ship

            Ran in all directions towards survival

In dreams I moved

            Through a human fog

            It was my single purpose

            That kept me going, and

            Kept me from going insane,

            To find you and the child whom I love

When I saw you in the hall of mirrors

            Like all the other victims

                                                you radiated decay

            Your hair had shrivelled and gone grey overnight

            I held my arms out-stretched

            Hoping you and your child would embrace me

            But you turned away

                                                 and she ran to you, as if I were

                                                                                             a stranger

I picked up my gun

            And went outside where things weren’t quite

                                                                        so grim

(I mean this war has killed love

                        so what’s a pile of rotting bodies)

In my uniform, I watched the beauty of

                                                            another atomic flash

            A tank drove by

                        I jumped aboard

                        And we headed toward

            The war which can never be won!