Necessary Evil

All those top secret months at Trinity
of steady hands and guess work,
touch safer than instruments -

Of course they had to test it.
Sometimes to know a thing
you have to blow it up.

Crossed fingers counted down.
Amulets clutched and names of saints
whispered in the silence before the roar.

There goes the pride of Los Alamos.
They filmed the detonation and shipped the reels,
along with the second bomb, off to the Pacific.

When they attempted to show that film to
the airmen who would drop the next one,
the projector jammed.

There were only words left to describe
the silence then the sound, the heat and
a white light brighter than the noon sun.

The Enola Gay had a shadow, flying over Japan.
A second plane carried the photographic crew.
That plane was called the Necessary Evil.
. . . . .