Atomic Lullaby

Memories of "comforting" words my parents told me as a child.

          Atomic Lullaby       

When I was five years old,
and Reagan was president
and the cold war was the war
to worry about,
my parents told me about atomic weapons.

They said that the president
had a button behind his desk that
he could push at any moment, and a third
world war would begin, only this time,
nuclear bombs would destroy everything.

I laid in bed at night and wondered
how far away a nuclear bomb
would have to be to explode and not
hit my bedroom.
I imagined an invisible force field encircling my house.

In this force field, I was safe,
safe from suffering and death.
Nothing could touch or harm me.
I was invincible,
but I felt badly because everyone outside burned to death.