Nuclear swine

The nuclear scientists used

the closest thing to our own

body tissue to witness

and study the effects of

thermal pulse and blast-effects.

 

Operation Plumbbob, they named

it and in their stiff white labcoats,

they huffed and puffed radiation

on almost 1200 pigs.

 

Let us in! they cried to science,

fists tight around sharp No2 pencils

and minds wrapped in equations,

                               barbed wire numbers and symbols.

 

Atomic burns, exploded cells

                     and all     t he

                               hou se s   w ere  b l o    w    n

                 

    d o  w 

                 n.

 

Pig flesh and people flesh

bacon and baked.

Author's Note

in the last stanza... should it be "Pig flesh and person flesh" instead? Does the spaces in the houses blown down bit work?

Reviews

[.]

Both ways could work at the end of the piece. I actually might prefer using "people" due to the "p" sound, but you are the "scientist "to your own creation. Overall this piece was great. It is a beautiful, realistic satire on our society today, and how we use/abuse animals for our own benefits. At he end of the day though, we realize that we too are animals(flesh), and that we are all the same. Great job-- as usual.

[eglantine]

Thanks bunches for reading and for your view on my person/human struggle. I've gotten such good reasons to use both---I'm still debating!

[Nobody.]

pork and dork blown everywhere! :) lol

good stuff! enjoyed the read. I think it'll be fine however you choose to write it. Made me laugh.....then feel sad....then laugh again. :)

Cheers!
RG

[eglantine]

haha good, glad you enjoyed it

[Kaylor Mason]

I think it works. "People Flesh" is the way it should be; that's what fits. Speaking personally, I must respectfully disagree with Cord Moreski on the issue of "Animal Rights". The way I see it, animals have no rights--that's what makes them animals. It's worth noting that pigs--especially wild pigs--will eat human beings at the drop of a hat. If it's true that we are all animals, then one aspect that most animal rights dudes forget is really a disturbing fact: to animals of all kinds, humans taste good. I would much rather have pigs nuked than humans. In my opinion, Anyone that places the life of an animal above the life of a human deserves to be an animal themselves. There's a famous line: "we're all animals." Well, no: WE ARE NOT! We are humans--they are animals; there's no in-between of any kind. If animal rights activists demand to believe that we are all animals, then make them sleep outside with the dogs every night, and make them wallow in the pig sty for their meals, fighting snout to snout with the rest of the trash for slops. Then they'll see what it's like to truly be an animal.

[eglantine]

Thanks for reading, as always and also thanks for sharing your opinion

[TLK]

I very much enjoy the fairytale imagery. I got more out of this poem because I've heard that human flesh and pig flesh taste similar ('longpig'). I've been told, also, that pigs are the only other animals that get sun-burn. I'm not convinced that is true, but it is definitely true that they are similar enough to us internally to be useful for science. So, I at least partly believe that their flesh is similar to ours. Lesson? People taste delicious.

The use of typographical stylishness to represent the explosion is successful because it is not overdone. (I am not fond of poems where the whole thing is supposed to look like something. Just let me read it. Jeez). So, 'yes', to your second question.

I prefer 'pig flesh and people flesh', because this has more of a fairytale quality. I think this is a big part of what you are going for here. The intrusion of fairytale aesthetic into blockheaded human mass-slaughter. You are saying, "in this mode of writing, your conceits and vanity are even more laughable".

Well done for that. Vanity must always be reduced to absurdity.

[eglantine]

TLK,

Thank you very much for reading and reviewing my poem. I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts on it. I'm glad you liked it. lol "people taste delicious"

[afra]

i enjoyed it ...its was different ...well done

[eglantine]

thanks afra!

[bob, small b. aka invs]

reading this gave me immediate flashbacks to film i've seen of the nuclear tests. pigs being herded into pens where they'd be fully exposed to the blast. houses being extinguished like the flame on a candle. amazing, scary stuff. i suppose pigs are preferable targets than people, but we just can't leave things alone. have a toy, gotta use it. people suck sometimes.

[eglantine]

yea, they do lol

[That_Girl]

I prefer human flesh... person flesh sounds very... remedial, in my opinion. Human flows better. Great poem! Lovely as always!

[eglantine]

Thank you!

[Pól]

I would opt for; Pig flesh and person flesh" for me doubling the "p" makes it sound better and makes the point that both are God's creatures.
Its a poem with a great message but lacking poetry. Maybe you should try to make the first two stances less prose and more lyrical

[eglantine]

Yes, I do like the alliteration...

[Pól]

Or what about " people flesh"?

[eglantine]

I've debated that as well, but I like person flesh more than people flesh. What do you think? between the two?

[Pól]

People for me everytime- but its totally subjective- so stick with what you like.

[Tree]

Well put together. I like the way you give a history lesson/and more importantly, a human one. As for your question you could even consider dropping that last stanza altogether... or instead of "human" or "person" slip in the word "people"...




.

[Whales]

Quite haunting. I'm this in a positive way. as to the last stanza I rest my opinion on "person flesh" because readers would expect you to write human flesh, but to through them off and to create more genius in your poem you said "person flesh". it just adds so much more to the poem that it creates a whole other world in someones mind.

[eglantine]

Very true, thank you