Nuclear Christ (a poem, 1983)

Nuclear Christ 

for Mr.  Norman David Mayer

I.

“I have a bomb! I have a friend!

We’re gonna die! Stop to pretend!

Why don’t you listen to me”

This was Norman Mayer’s plea.

We’ve lost control of ourselves

Like masturbating giants

Getting off on death –

We worship the weapons, we

Count them like toys, we

Cannot decide and we

Will not listen, Mr. Mayer

Must die to show this 

World, this shot dear world –

He was sixty-six, old and angry not mad –

He could not escape the shackles 

Linking all of us together –

Of course you can die, it was

A good day to die, Mr.

Norman David Mayer, hating

Like a Nuclear War, his

Ashes smoulder still in 

Arlington National Garden.

II.

He wandered and tried, failed, and tried

Consumed by desire and the Greatest

Fire the World was going to see

His parting – dies as he

Lies bleeding: “I have a Bomb!”

His baby blue snowsuit all a mess

He didn’t expect to make it anyway and

He dies because we love Death 

No large surprise He dressed

Like Superman or Captain America –

Mr. Norman David Mayer was

Labeled insane by authorities

Who think they are sane but

Aid the ones with the evil keys to

This massive prison we call Home –

A van full of Air and Will He

Was there at the biggest

Phallic Symbol of them all,

It looks like a missile How

Sleek and defined – Pointed 

At God – Now, what

Do they have in mind?

III.

“I have a Nightmare” Three

Years on a beach on an

Island smoking dope Do you

Think that made him crazy now?

Most would say content He

Only knew there’s no escape 

No matter where he ran away

So he moved on through his life as we

Cranked the rack The

Walls grow larger He was torn

And He waited and He hated and

He saved like none of us could –

And he gave his life for 

Something Undisputably Good you

Know He’s right because this

Very second the Bombs are ticking

Atoms splitting Tomorrow we

May join Him The newspaper 

Headline reads “A Victim of an

Unyielding Will” His flesh was 

Mortal yet his spirit sails on until…