Dead Love: Zombie Poem for Fukushima Fifty

Posted by on Mar 17, 2011 in Rants and Raves | 3 comments

It would be friggin’ ridiculous to think that I could be focused on anything but the appalling disaster in Japan right now. Clément is on the scene, of course, high-stepping over the body bags and ranting about how man can make a natural disaster worse.

I have to admit, I’m struggling with similar feelings, and just when I think it’s overwhelming (Clément has called me a pathetic zombie in the past), the arresting image of some men’s incredible courage overtakes me. Here’s my zombie tribute to that spirit.

Containment
for the Fukushima Fifty

Man in white—HasMat/level A—
ghostlike, moving, breathing slowly—
in my horrified dream I hear your ragged
inhalation-exhalation through the
Self Contained Breathing Apparatus (SCBA)
they say will keep you safe
from radiation: particles and gas.

These could choke you, stop your already
laborious progress through a plant that men made
to fuel a lust for power.

You are anonymous, face encapsulated
by the hood, voice rattled
by the Supplied Air Respirator, pushed
into the Voice-Operated Channel—your
umbilicus to Clean-Up Operations.

You are my zombie hero, dead man walking,
while the Big Brains meet and find new ways
to slice and dice the acceptable margin
for terror.

If I could shower you in flowers, make whole
the body that you sacrifice, through some
bright communal magic, I would do it.
But you are that magic; you are the white-bright
light of courage that dares to contend with
the murderous pissing poison, the greed, the desire,
and patiently
clean it up.

—Erin Orison

 

—Erin Orison, DEAD LOVE/the Daily Slice

  • Thalea

    Well put, Erin! May that light guide us all.

  • Thank you. I actually think we are all in the dark.

  • Leanne

    Erin, thank you for zeroing in on the most important thing in this zombie-wide disaster — the courageous souls who are giving their bodies to the clean-up (what a pathetic word for what they’re really doing…)