“In a small shed at the top of a 100-foot-tall steel tower deep in the New Mexico desert, Donald Hornig sat next to the world’s first atomic bomb in the late evening of July 15, 1945, reading a book of humorous essays.”
From Hornig’s obituary: New York Times, Jan. 26 2012
One: Donald Hornig
In Alamogordo, they say, the sun came up twice that day. So much like a God
who threatens glory and punishment. It was the most beautiful show
I’d ever seen. The hot start of a star, then a white bloom. The sand
broke into tiny blades of light green radioactive glass. Some
believed the monster spark would ignite the stratosphere,
but the promise was so much stronger than our fear.
The explosion was like a birth, everything
with the click of a button. Instead,
in lightning, I baby-sat
the plutonium. I read
aloud, while it slept,
and, then, I put
down my book
and connected
the switches.
Two: Lili Hornig
Working in secret in Los Alamos
I, too, was a plutonium
scientist. Brilliant
& cocky, the men’s schemes
were considered first & desire
to end the war
was overwhelming. Like a campfire
in the wilderness my conscience
flickered; with others I
recommended a live spectacle
of the bomb, leaders
of nations would watch
& surely lay down
weapons after witnessing
such power, destruction,
military dominance. It
was never under serious
consideration. We all carry
some guilt but big boys
like big toys.
Three: Annie Hawkes
In 1950, Annie Hawkes, a seven-year-old in Alamogordo, would gather up green glass pebbles formed by nuclear tests and take them home in boxes to hide under her bed because they glowed in the dark. She and two of her sisters developed numerous cancers, as well as bone and thyroid diseases. Hawkes says 95 percent of the girls she went to school with in Alamogordo eventually contracted some form of cancer or thyroid disease.
in New Mexico
radioactive grasses
food for cows in spring
