BELIEVE EDWARD TELLER



The German-trained scientist
who brought us the H-bomb

says we got nothing
to fear from nuclear power.

Meanwhile, yellow crust cakes
in pools in New Mexico

along the Rio Puerco.
Overnight, boomtowns

spring up in the desert
like radioactive yucca.

Gallup. Shiprock. Mexican Hat.
Twenty years later

Navajo miners cough up
red lungs of uranium.

Fifty years later
Denver's International

House of Pancakes
built on a radium processing

site, still hot, still
spewing radon gas

thick as maple syrup.
But don't believe

the bleeding hearts.
Believe Kerr-McGee.

Believe Edward Teller.
Believe me.

Just close your eyes
& it'll all be gone.

art goodtimes
union of street poets
vincent st. john local / colorado plateau / aztlán
kuksu brigade (ret.) / san francisco