Crossroads Able Target Ship Map
23 nuclear tests to end all wars, you see,
There’s never been a woman like Gilda,
The first plutonium-cored, pin-up girl,
1946 femme fatal bombshell (she’s already killed twice!)
Stars in B-29 Superfortress, Dave’s (Wet) Dream
Her aim point Nevada, that focal point of sin
Painted whorific red, sex-toy fun for the bombardier,
Amidst 3 obsolete U.S. battleships (well hung),
2 aircraft carriers (top guns), 2 cruisers (playboys),
11 destroyers (bad boys), 8 submarines (spooks),
And 3 German and Japanese ships (losers)
She laps up the Able Target Array carnage
Gives atmospheric nuclear fallout head,
Spewing an ocean of emotional wounds
Special Delivery propaganda porno flick:
‘Air power is peace power!’ hard on baby
Film noir fireball glory for a superheated Cold War
Operations Crossroads testing at Bikini Atoll
Depravity reaches the Atomic Ark tasting her full fury
Naval uniforms specially made, the animals dress the parts
She blasts goat #113 after tethering him to a gun turret
While swimmy little piggy #311 comes home sterile
167 native islander witnesses, however, cannot
Her encore will be performed by stunt double Bravo,
Another 15 megaton super dirty girl
‘Men fall in love with Gilda but wake up with me.’
Rita Hayworth, on her five failed marriages
Operation Crossroads Able
Posted to Open Link Night hosted by rock star Tash http://dversepoets.com/2012/07/10/openlinknight-week-52/ celebrating a year of community this week!
Chromapoetica 
Spiraling juxtapositions like the crazed octopus that is the military industrial context – I love how you push the real pornography of the latter half of the twentieth century and couch it further in images of the cold war and film noir and all the seeming facades of Hollywood past. As I re-read it, your Rita Hayworth quote which seems like a puzzle on my first reading, reveals itself as perhaps the most telling line in the whole poem, where marriage would seem like a shield against all that metallic lip stick painted madness and we, like Rita, failed at that. And extra points for being so playful and making your point at the same time.
Nice call on the octopus metaphor for the military industrial complex though I’d have to argue that octopi exhibit signs of higher intelligence :D. Wonderful to hear on the reread you were able to connect the Rita Hayworth dots. Thanks for this feast of a comment!
I completely agree with your argument that any mollusk or cephalopod would be! 🙂
Sweet!
all power is peace power…propaganda porno….gives nucler fission head…haha..oh sexy for sure….mine is bigger than yours is posturing…a 15 megaton super dirty girl…surely…well this is a while new way of looking at history anna…smiles….nice…
Yes, all that posturing and the bomb still missed by 710 yards – faulty tail stabilizer apparently :).
I am just in awe of what you’ve done with this. This is amazing. Thought-provoking, but it gave me a smile
Thank you Zach! Very nice to meet you.
Damn smart writing, Anna.
Coming from a supersmart writer like you, well, this means a great deal to me :).
Very nice. Love the mixing of heavier subject matter with wit. Great use of military strategy, historical overviews and allusions from military, political, historical and popular culture. Fantastic piece Anna.
Sometimes it’s the best strategy for remaining sane. Thanks Fred, your feedback is always valuable to me.
Porn and bombs and Rita Hayworth. She’s one of my movie favs 🙂 This is an amazing write Anna. To connect and atomic bomb and liken all of the events surrounding it to porn and the players that are involved, ‘Bad boys, top guns, well hung.’ Is wonderful writing.
Poor Rita. She never did find real love. My G-Man’s 55 is going to be about her (oddly enough) 🙂
Really enjoyed this!
Yes, that propaganda film sounds awful! I look forward to reading your piece on Rita.
Wow! Go on and toss the war porno back in the faces of the contesters of whose is bigger! I had suspected that lust/sex was at the bottom of the allure, but did not know women’s names were assigned to targets and bombs, etc. Do you remember the fight to give hurricanes both male and female names so as not to contribute to the abuse and torture of women? Disseminate this poem in all its glorious anger! and its direct attack on the pin-ups that weren’t so innocent after all! and its satire on the thinking behind the morass of ways to kill.
Yes, I was in a biting mood and I’ve long wanted to write something on Fat Man and Little Boy but can’t. There’s too much raw, devastating emotion. Here I was still saddened and outraged by the death of so many animals (test subjects) and the dislocation of the natives but found a way through to a statement. With Hiroshima and Nagasaki I have no statement to make only deep and abiding empathy, sorrow, and shame.
oh heck… this is just one powerful piece anna… loved it from first to last line..
Wow, thank you Claudia, what a wonderful compliment!
Oh Dazzling One– this is so incredibly biting and powerful– I am blown away. I especially love: he
“laps up the Able Target Array carnage
Gives atmospheric nuclear fallout head,
Spewing an ocean of emotional wounds
Special Delivery propaganda porno flick:
‘Air power is peace power!’ hard on baby
Film noir fireball glory for a superheated Cold War
Sit on it a while and then try it on The Nation, why not…. such a statement, so mordant. xxj
Yum, mordant is such a luscious word! Thank you for your kind words of encouragement!
Thought provoking and amazing, Anna.
Ayala, you bring sunshine with your visits :).
You are so good. I am forever in awe of the way your mind works. This is chillingly smart and witty, making me want to both look away and read on all at the same time. The sexuality combined with this subject gives it the perfect amount of creepiness to drive your point home. Another masterpiece!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Kelly, you are good for the soul :D!
Ah, another poet that appreciates the calamity of our nuclear reality! I stopped publishing the hardcore poems I write like these, for fear of being labeled an extremist – not to mention my outlook on life was becoming a bit jaded and bleak. But I’m glad to see you are still free in the spirit and brave enough to speak out. Very well done.
Yes, Total Information Awareness, or whatever it’s called now, is a deterrent to speaking freely. Thank you for your solidarity, nice to see you again.
I recently finished reading “The Fate of the Earth” by Jonathan Schell. It was an interesting read although he did tend to repeat himself more than once. I fear however, that his appeal to the human race to eliminate the possibility of self-imposed extinction is no longer an effective plea in a society that is driven by the”I” instead of the “we”. I thought I’d mention it in case you’d like to check it out.
Thank you! I always appreciate book recommendations.
Ha, this is great! I love what you did here. War porn for the masses!
Oooo, does this mean you’ll consider becoming a Producer for the project 😀 – ha!
Exceptionally well done, Anna. War is indeed porn, (and of course, money,) and what could be more phallic than those bombs, rockets, guns and submarines–especially on this scale. Also liked the quote from Rita Hayworth–rather thought-plucking in this context.
I thought the quote gave that sense of being in love with the idea of war, the glamour of mushroom clouds and fireballs in the South Pacific then waking up to the very human toll and, of course, she played Gilda :). I appreciate your lovely compliment.
On OLN’s special night…. War, Porn and Nuclear Fallout … is it my birthday too?! YaY! ;D
It did occur to me this might appeal to your *ahem* twisted tastes, thanks for the giggle.
Really like this. Just a really creative take on an established subject. Always great to see things from a different side. Particularly one as well executed as this.
Amazing work here.
I agree; it keeps us fresh to look at something anew. Thank you!
deep, this had mind thinking to comprehend what was happening, Which is a go thing, Thank you
Always happy to stimulate thought!
This is really powerful, and the way you interweave sex talk with the military speak is really ingenious. hat gets me are the way you have taken the facts, as profane as they are, can transmuted them into poetry. That’s pretty amazing, given the material you started with.
It was a challenge :).
I love using Rita Hayworth as the metaphor throughout. Gilda the early clue and all the bombshell references made it clear to me on first read. As always the completeness and thoroughness of your exploration is there but in such a poetic way with the sounds exploding throughout as the damage takes its toll on every living thing mentioned. The horror of the nuclear era cannot be overstated and this is a very fine protest poem written in an extremely deft manner. Kudos!
Very true! Gay, you help me become a better writer through your detailed feedback. Thank you :).
Anna…the power of your bite in this piece is to be praised…brilliance never fails to drip from your pen…this one get’s me all riled up…(surprise!) Just fantastic and once again, color my pen ignited
Thank you, riled up is awesome and your ignited pen is good for all of us!
The best part of this poem, at least for me, are the numerics – 23 tests, 1949, B-29, 2 carriers, 167 witnesses – all these fabricate a metric for the horrific, a Celsius scale for collating emotionality with cold mathematics.
Yes, something in my own coping strategies is coming out in that, a need to quantify, mensurate suffering, to reconcile the emotional impact and the facts. Fascinating!
I’ll tell you what, Anna, this could be a poetic parody of that iconic 1964 film “Dr. Strangelove”, starring the quite brilliant Peter Sellers. It conveys such surreal imagery and the feel of thing is as mad as the crazy Dr Strangelove himself. I’m going to leave this page open and come back to this poem, because I think it is either completely mad or utterly brilliant; can’t make my mind up yet. Whatever it is, it makes compelling reading and cannot possibly be ignored.
Haha, well I can tell you which way I’m leaning on this one. Nice to meet you, maybe you don’t need to decide but if you do please let me know.
Mad AND Brilliant..!
Such an interesting combination of pin-up and blow-up here. Great sound and light and fury. k.
Thanks k., all an important part of prosody :)!
Before this, there were 52 comments on this one – hate to break what seems a fitting number (in a poem spiralling around stats) for the anniversary of dVerse. Smart piece, Anna.. what else is there but sex and numbers?
Ha, I hadn’t noticed but you’re always welcome to break the numbers here! Thanks Becky :).
Anna, I love your blog. You’ve got variety but with complexity and depth. I’m looking forward to visiting more often. Thanks for stopping by my rabbit hole.
Thank you Yousei, you’ve just made my day :)!