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CHERNOBYL

They said it couldn’t happen, but it did:
A nuclear reactor blew its lid.
Though the cause is still a mystery,
The Ukraine may be history,
With a burning, melting core,
Twelve miles from a reservoir
In the very greatest wetland
In all Europe, south of Finland.
Water is contaminated,
Farmland is irradiated.
People surely suffer,
Yet parade just as before,
But life and death are not the same any more.
Shall we stake our lives on fickle winds and weather?
Or shall we see that we are all in this together?

It was thirty-six hours after the explosion
Before the Russians set their wheels in motion.
Evacuation came too late
And passing time had sealed the fate
Of the nearby town of Pripyat,
Where twenty-five thousand people caught
In a radioactive cloud
Of which no knowledge was allowed
All had their blood cells altered
While the Russian leaders faltered.
The radioactivity
Had blown across the Baltic Sea
Before Ukrainians ever had a notion.
Shall we stake our lives on fickle winds and weather?
Or shall we see that we are all in this together?

Do you think our power structure’s much the better?
Do you think that they reveal the truth unfettered?
The official line they gave ya
Was that over Scandinavia
Radiation’s barely heightened,
You’re unnecessarily frightened,
There’s no cesium, no iodine,
No danger, you’ll be fine,
The cloud is dissipating,
Radiation is decaying,
By the time it reaches here
There’ll be nothing left to fear,
It’s bound to be about too low to measure.
Shall we stake our lives on fickle winds and weather?
Or shall we see that we are all in this together?

Did you hear that our reactors are much safer?
Did you know that it’s your life you’re asked to wager?
Chernobyl had safety systems
Far too numerous to list ‘em:
If they shut it down to fuel it,
They had water for to cool it;
They had insulated wires
Not expected to catch fire;
And they had containment structures
Which were not supposed to rupture;
And yet the roof was blown,
As photographs have shown.
But it cannot happen here, you’re in no danger.
Shall we stake our lives on fickle winds and weather?
Or shall we see that we are all in this together?

Eugene, Oregon, 1986