War Poetry

What They Are Watching
Trinity Site, New Mexico, 5:30 A.M., July 16, 1945

That they should sit on long rows of benches,
That they should consider the desert
as a worthy place for the beholding,
That they should sit with hands joined
in their laps, as if in meditation,
That they should make no outcry,
That they should wear ordinary clothing,
nothing thicker than an old drab overcoat,
That they should wear only tennis shoes
or oxfords over the bones of their feet,
That they should allow the dark goggles
to be placed over their eyes,
That they should sit as quiet as death
while the great light flashes through them,
That they should bear the burden
of knowledge, and the lack of it,
That they should sit, patient and expectant,
That they should cross legs, swinging their feet,
That mountains should sit unmoved in judgement,
That men and women should hold their hands
to their goggles as if looking through
binoculars or at the sun, which has never
expressed a need for a sibling on earth,
That they should think this is the ultimate
good, worth the sacrifice of every creature,
That they should catch death like a flung ball,
And that they did not flee screaming,
is the great mystery.

by David Ray