Way back in the Forties, there was a clear mission,

Not concerned an iota about nuclear fission

And all the side products caused by protons now parted,

Not understanding at all what we really had started.

Einstein himself doubted whether mankind

Could keep its aggressions all clearly in line

And use this new force for its true betterment,

Rather than use it for furies to vent.

In the ensuing decades there grew the arms race,

Radioactivity spewing all over the place.

Some leaks were discovered, then promptly hushed up,

The people's tranquility, so as not to disrupt.

We're producing nuke products by the barrels and reams,

And, meanwhile, they're mutating all of our genes.

"No problem!", bureaucrats mindlessly assuage our fears,

(Folks, we're talking half-lives of 20,000 years!)

Let's just assume that these N-plants don't leak.

Still, they produce all their Tritium week after week.

There's one major problem that's never been faced

And that's what to do with the nuclear waste.

All nations must sit down, resolve in post haste,

What to do with their garbage, the trimmings, the waste.

It's been said that TV creates a "waste land",

But it is radioac-TV-ity, that ought to be banned.

Even if money is found and leaks are reduced,

The product will continue and its poison produced.

We have only ONE world, thus, its nations can't gloat,

"Our world's sprung a leak, but.....in your end of the boat."

Copyright © 2007 by Frank Koerner