poemimage

Tiger Lily,

Jumping at the sun,

Singing to my mother,

Your jitterbugging effervescence

Revisited:

Seen in the rear-view mirror,

In the light of

Swimwear fashion-history

&

The tragic reversal of

Original alchemical

Fortune.

Consider:

The destruction of the Bikini Atoll

By American nuclear testing for war preparedness

(1946),

And the subsequent starvation of relocated islanders,

As well as the irradiation & poisoning of the native, original environment.

Events

Intersected, by the frolic of

 Bikini,

Designed & sewn by a Parisian –

Shall I editorialize,

Paraphrasing Yeats: Rag & bone shop

Of the physical,

Or simply,

Fashion design house

Emulating

The blast psychology of the atomic bomb

Within & upon

Contemporary, popular culture,

Mirroring the undoing:

 Alchemical atomic nothingness unleashed

Upon

Fauna and flora, coral & the seabed…

Only one year earlier

Undressing & disintegrating

Cities:

Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Bikini

Introduced to the public

Five days after the blast

On the Atoll.

My mother adored Tiger Lilies.

My brother delivered her ashes

Into a forest,

Spreading them across the roots and moss –

Shaking her into the wind –

Planting again her Tiger Lily bulbs,

Jitterbugging,

On the West Coast.

Where have all the flowers gone?

Original photograph by Grahame Garner (1964) of women with a Ban the Bomb banner in Brisbane, Australia.

Source: http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:114192

I do not own copyright to this image and have altered it for purposes of non-commercial commentary under fair use provisions.