One World, Or None

Mama, how come you never told me about
the A-bomb?

Were we too busy
running from the men
with pillowcases and sheets
to duck and cover?

How come there’s never
any of us in those
public service announcements?

They claim we can’t get
a suntan, but are we also
immune to gamma rays?

Is it like flesh colored
crayons, something that
was created without
us in mind?

There weren’t
whites only signs
on the air raid shelters
so I guess
they would
have
cracked
open
the door,
if we knocked
hard enough,
right?

We would have been
one
big,
at last,
happy family,

A(llison) Whittenberg is a poet and novelist (LIFE IS FINE, SWEET THANG, HOLLYWOOD AND MAINE, TUTORED all from Random House and THE SANE ASYLUM from Beatdom). She lives in Philadelphia.