August Sixth
Emily Okita
I.
Little Boy
Fat Man fell into red ocean
Walking ghosts
Where’s mother?
Grave of Fireflies
Tiny flames consume everything
Infrastructure destroyed
Infernal windows
to the end of the line
Burning, Screaming, Lights out
II.
Keiko-chan
City of Death
Miles from Ground Zero
The River
A baby nursing in a blistered mother’s arms
A man cradling his eye in one hand
A friend trapped under her home
A mother, her headless child on her back
A neighbor, belly open, intestines spilling
III.
Keiko-chan, I ran away from my sisters as they called out for help
Keiko-chan, disease X
Specimen ABC
Study for long-term effects of radiation disease
120,000
One day a year
Doctor would inspect me
It changed after my twelfth birthday
Keiko-chan, stand up on stage and take off your gown
Wide room with bright lights
Doctors, different languages
A doctors’ meeting
“You’re turning into a woman, Keiko-chan.”
Why am I naked?
Why do I have to show myself in front of these doctors?
Purple spots, hair loss, bruises, swelling
I cannot tell my mother, my father
No one. I’m alone.
IV.
August 6, 1945
A war I did not start
Mushroom clouds, shock waves stabbed me
A Beautiful Invention
Genocidal Physics