Her face was pale as a dusky moon

Sitting in a wheelchair silently with

Empty stares telling no aspiration and

Apathetic expression as if her spirit evicted

In a mental health hospital

She was treated for depression

An evacuee from Chernobyl

After the nuclear plant explosion

When she was a young girl

She wouldn’t know the air was toxic

Neither could she hold her breaths

Nor find a place to hide

When the invisible radiation streamed into

Her body before the evacuation

Immigrated to this country years later

She started a new life with old maladies in tow

This promising land however was inept at

Dissipation of her dejection

Its fresh air couldn’t revive her vitality

Her damaged marrow remained sluggish

Enigmatic weakness continued to

Prevent her from walking

With health robbed away

Did her memory of

The halcyon days of her youth

Survive the radioactive fallout

Did she ever wonder

what her life would be like

If that nuclear disaster never happened

By Shih-Fang Wang

From: United States