Los Alamos

Los Alamos
New Mexico
Birth place of
The atomic bomb
The world’s first
Atomic explosion

Mary had a little lamb
Little lamb
Little lamb
Mary had a little lamb
Whose fleece 
Was white as snow

The events that
Took place
In that remote area
During the predawn
Hours of
July 16, 1945
Forever changed the world!

And every where 
That Mary went
Mary went
Her sheep was sure to go!

On that day
In the wake of
A fireball that burned
Hotter than ten thousand suns
What had been
Merely theoretical had
Suddenly become
The ultimate
Reality

Jack and Jill
Went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water

The Trinity test
Was the culmination
Of three years’
Planning and development
Within the super secret
Manhattan Project

The project was headed by
A  four star career officer
Named General Leslie R. Groves and
By one of the world’s
Most renowned physicists
Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer

Together they made
The two atomic weapons named
Little Man and Fat Boy!

Together they made
An isolated corner of
The Alamogordo Bombing and
Gunnery range
Into Hell on Earth
(Even though doing so
Brought the two of them
Everlasting fame!)

Under the super secret
Code-name of
“Trinity”
Groves and Oppenheimer
Baptized the Atomic Age!

Ring around the rosie
A pocket full of posie
Ashes, ashes
All fall down!

(The Holy Trinity
Is another name
For the Father
The Son, and
The Holy Ghost)!

Even before the
First bomb was tested
A second bomb
Was secretly dispatched
To the pacific
For a planned attack
On the Japanese city of
Hiroshima (Fat Boy)
(A third atomic bomb named
Little Man  would later
Be dropped on Nagasaki)
Hundreds of thousands
Of Japanese men, women and children
Would be brutally
Killed in both attacks.
The Allied price of Victory and
The war policy goal of
Unconditional surrender.

Look Jane!
See Spot?
See Spot run?
Look Dick!
See Spot jump?
See Spot jump and run?

Preparations for the test
Included the building of a steel tower
That would suspend the bomb
One hundred feet above the ground

London Bridge is falling down
Falling down
Falling down
London Bridge is falling down
My fair lady!

Many were apprehensive
There were concerns
That the blast
Might launch
A cataclysmic reaction
With the upper atmosphere
Leading to total
World destruction!

Rock a bye baby
On the tree top
When the wind blows
The cradle will rock!

Some feared the consequences
Of radio active fallout
On civilian populations
Surrounding the test site

And when the bough breaks
The cradle will fall
And down will come baby
Cradle and all!

Still other feared
The test might fail
And the bomb would
Turn out to be one big dud!
The biggest fizzled
Firecracker on
Earth!

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the  world ends
Not with a bang
But a whimper-
T.S. Elliot

Finally the heavy rains subsided
And in the darkness
Of that early July 16 morning
History was made

Everyone knows
The world is 
Coming to an end
But no one knows
Quite what to do
Everyone knows
The world is
Coming to an end so
One...
Two...
Buckle my shoe!

jhmarkowitz
Philadelphia, pa. 2012