by Carol Dorf
In the marrow of the world
stygobites retreat
from light to live protected,
translucent lives.
At a lab in Bethesda,
the Radiation Casualty
Management Team
researches blood boosting drugs
in event of nuclear attack.
Mr. Sumiteru Taniguchi
stood 1.8 kilometers away
from impact at Hiroshima,
an old man now, he takes off tie,
shirt, to reveal distorted flesh
burned away in childhood.
When geologists lower
the water for mining,
or pump it out to transform
green, partched earth,
every creature that has evolved
in the isolated aquifer dies.
Carol Dorf's work has been published in Runes, Coracle, Five Fingers Review, Transfer, Socialist Review (the issue Ron Silliman edited,) and Feminist Studies. She have taught in various venues including as a California Poet-in-the-Schools, at Vista College, at Lawrence Hall of Science, and in a large urban high school.
