<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class="">For We Are The Children Of The Atomic Age</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><i style="font-size: 14px;" class="">For Dr. Helen Caldicott</i></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> I. </div><div class=""> For we are the children of the Atomic Age</div><div class=""> Before our birth our genes were coded and spliced</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> Yet the earth, the earth, is beautiful</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For fallout the wind brings that we cannot see</div><div class=""> For nuclear power plants and missiles mapping our trails</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> Yet the earth is so beautiful</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For the deception of powerful men we pay and pay</div><div class=""> For their so strange illusion of boundless power</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> Yet the earth, the earth is so beautiful</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> for bald eagles and other endangered species</div><div class=""> for the tragic magnificence of all the doomed</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> Yet the earth is beautiful everywhere</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For people born today who will not live too long</div><div class=""> For the medical profession which has no enduring cure</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> Yet the earth is beautiful still beautiful</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For how we turn to flora and fauna for healing and love</div><div class=""> for how those men's vision wins out over the earth</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> Yet the earth is still beautiful</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> How we dream again of her green vegetative hair</div><div class=""> How they dream of an abstract ghostly heaven</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> Yet the earth, the earth, is beautiful</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For our irradiated food and pesticide-drenched crops</div><div class=""> For our vast indulgences that led to these disasters</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> Yet the earth is still beautiful</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For foolish men's dreams of escaping to the stars</div><div class=""> For their deadly machinery and all its effects</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> Yet the earth, the earth, is beautiful everywhere</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> for how the polar caps are really melting</div><div class=""> for our prophecies of falling into the sea</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> Yet the earth, the earth and sea, are beautiful</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For the thousands of species that have already died</div><div class=""> For us who would like to survive---</div><div class=""> For the earth / sea / sky are beautiful, so beautiful</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> II. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For how nature's subtle patterns resemble one another</div><div class=""> How fireflies mirror the distant stars</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> And Hindu palaces look like children's sandcastles</div><div class=""> And the sea contains butterfly patterned fish</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For how black bats spread darkness with their caped wings</div><div class=""> And light and shadow coruscate in a dance</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For how shadows sew the living and dead together</div><div class=""> And spirals connect us--fetuses, snails, corpses--</div><div class=""> in the world's coiled womb</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For how the willow's slender leaves drop like tears</div><div class=""> And foxgloves, little delicate bells of dawn,</div><div class=""> sway to the gong of the wind</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For how mountains are molded like breasts</div><div class=""> And cow parsnip umbels delicate as grandma's white lace</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> And coleuses might have been daubed by artists' brushes</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For how bird of paradise have beaks sharp as feathered birds'</div><div class=""> And hummingbirds, fishes, frogs and stars share in the</div><div class=""> world's iridescent luminescence</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> And for how the trees' leaves are their mantle of hair</div><div class=""> That they shed and grow, grow and shed and shed and grow again</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> And for how cat, zebra, raccoon and tiger lily</div><div class=""> Are marked by the same wind-driven eternal fingers</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For how our eyes sparkle like jewels, illuminating darkness--</div><div class=""> Brown for the earth, blue for the sky, green for the sea</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> And for how our bodies contain arteries of water</div><div class=""> Like the earth its net of oceans, lakes and rivers--</div><div class=""> Its profusion of life sustaining blood</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For how the sun rises each morning on its own legs</div><div class=""> And disappears each night into a mesh of crimson darkness</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> And for how the moon trails the sea after it</div><div class=""> Like a bride a billowing wedding train</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For how fresh snow is like froth of foam capped waves</div><div class=""> And for the rainbow painting arches in the sky</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> And for how we are here today in the flesh</div><div class=""> And for how soon there may be few left like us</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For we--we are the children--of the Atomic Age</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> For all this and for the earth, the earth,</div><div class=""> Which is beautiful, still beautiful everywhere we go </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""> - Erika Horn</div></div></body></html>