69.

The nuclear power plants smoke over the land

In ways Petrarch, Newton and Marie Curie

Never knew: they light schools and houses

Even in the shadow of the Bomb. We, as slow

As we were, grew up under the threat, feared

We would have no children to tend

Or, rather, that we would never grow up.

The bomb shelter signs are still on the buildings

At Harvard, a yellow hazard, or they were there

Last time I looked. Here in eastern France

These stacks are a controversy

Out of sight for the children by the Seine.

What is it that takes us to death’s threshold

As we glide on the rails with its power?