Chernobyl baby.

Tiny face

lost in a skull the

size of a watermelon.

Hands clutching at air.

Chernobyl baby.

The horror of 

human error is

reflected in your eyes.

Sweet baby of the Zone.




Swaddled in the crumbling

sarcophagus of reactor four,

you cry with

the despair

and dashed dreams of a million

and more.

Can you hear the geiger

counters rattle?

Are you warmed by the hot glow?

Do you suck on the poison?

Sweet Chernobyl baby.

What mother 
 
looks at you with love?

Nuclear baby.

Ten years down.

Ten thousand yet to go.





Copyright © 1996 Kelley Rouse. All Rights Reserved.




Kelley Rouse