Trinity

Sixty-six years ago today an event occurred in the desert known as Jornada del Muerto, Spanish for "route of the dead man" at the White Sands Proving Ground.  It is significant because it ushered in the Nuclear Age.   It was a test of a device the result of the Manhattan Project, a secret project to create a Nuclear Weapon before the enemies of the day could create one.  The Scientists on the project did not know what the results would be.  Oppenheimer, head of the project and a scholar of Sanskrit, quoted the  Bhagavad-Gita in response to the success of the test. A few weeks later we used such a weapon on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. 

Forty one years ago, on the 25^th anniversary of that event, I wrote this poem.  I believe it still applies.

Trinity

Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

                                    Bhagavad-Gita

“In the desert prepare the way of the Lord,

let the message of peace be outpoured,”

In the desert in a place called ‘Trinity’,

occurred mankind’s most horrifying tragedy.

A formula was devised in such a manner,

as to create destruction never grimmer.

Its face was bright and golden yellow—

a mushroom cloud of tempest mellow.

Since technology and others saved the day,

and for future fear and pain paved the way.

What cause, what sequence, what reaction for

which to justify this bastard act of war.

The cause was victory, the sequence we,

the reaction death to Fascism’s plea.

But, in the wake of Democracy’s fame

we subsequently Neo-Fascists became.

                             July 16, 1970