The Blue Moon Review

Duck and Cover
by Brent Goodman

If you just follow instructions and listen to the sky
you could survive.  Radiation is harmless 
as those rays used to look through you.  Movie 
swimming grey against tbe front screen, we watched 
a dotted line stretch from Moscow to New York 
in less than seven minutes, sirens cranked-up 
and screaming, all those children disappearing 
under desks.  A flash filled the room.  And maybe 

I turned around in time to see a beautiful light 
swelling in Jen Piefer's glasses, but we were 
younger than that.  Instead, I broke 
pencil after pencil trying to press the clouds 
dark enough, the art board crowded with worry.  
If we just followed instructions, we'd survive--
each night the ground held its breath 
beneath us.  And every morning, we stood, 
palm covering heart.  We memorized 
our social security and practiced our falls.