San Antonio Summer '64

...there are approximately 16,300 nuclear weaponslocated ...in 14 countries.Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 2014 Rising on columns of fire, rockets launched to the moon – and I who'd wished to work with astronauts, am assigned instead to weigh SAC bomber crew immersed in water – measure "lean body mass," wondered what difference a paunch on a pilot would make sitting in a B52. Silent— eyes hidden behind red goggles, they swaggered in their muscled nakedness into my lab. Dark-adapted to their cockpits, ready day or night, airborne at the President's command – fly over the pole, drop hydrogen bombs – mutual assured destruction. MAD it was called. Competing interestsNone. Provenance and peer reviewNot commissioned; internally peer reviewed.
Source: Medical Humanities - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tags: Poetry and prose Source Type: research