Nuclear Arms

"... as he went to join the nuclear
arms protest in Amsterdam in 1981"
I read, and was momentarily stuck
in the image of two strong, unhesitant

arms, with subatomic powers of enfolding
all my protons, waltzing with my electrons,
and electrifying all my neutrons; arms
gifted with the force of fusion, gathering

all my elementary particles,
keeping them from speeding away
in opposite directions, anchoring
them in a here. Arms that could

annihilate my entire population,
in a blink, on a whim, if they would.


(written during the longest night of the year, as the full Moon enters a total eclipse, and the winter starts: Dec 21, 3:14 AM)