<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">The Planet Krypton</span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">Outside the window the McGill smelter<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">sent a red dust down on the smoking yards of copper,<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">on the railroad tracks’ frayed ends disappeared<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">into the congestion of the afternoon. Ely lay dull<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">and scuffed: a miner’s boot toe worn away and dim,<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">while my mother knelt before the Philco to coax<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">the detonation from the static. From the Las Vegas<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">Tonapah Artillery and Gunnery Range the sound<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">of the atom bomb came biting like a swarm<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">of bees. We sat in the hot Nevada dark, delighted,<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">when the switch was tripped and the bomb hoisted<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">up its silky, hooded, glittering, uncoiling length;<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">it hissed and spit, it sizzled like a poker in a toddy.<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">The bomb was no mind and all body; it sent a fire<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">of static down the spine. In the dark it glowed like the coils<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">of an electric stove. It stripped every leaf from every<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">branch until a willow by a creek was a bouquet<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">of switches resinous, naked, flexible, and fine.<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">Bathed in the light of KDWN, Las Vegas,<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">my crouched mother looked radioactive, swampy,<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">glaucous, like something from the Planet Krypton.<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">In the suave, brilliant wattage of the bomb, we were<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">not poor. In the atom’s fizz and pop we heard possibility<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">uncorked. Taffeta wraps whispered on davenports.<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">A new planet bloomed above us; in its light<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">the stumps of cut pine gleamed like dinner plates.<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">The world was beginning all over again, fresh and hot;<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;">we could have anything we wanted.<br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-indent: -1em;"><span style="font-size: 20px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Lynn Emanuel </span></div></div></body></html>