Nuclear Life
Ann Randlette
1950’s public elementary school
we were issued our free
government i.d. tags
wore them like skin for 6 years.
Each year filled out papers
‘in case of nuclear attack
should your child
stay at school
or run home.’
I practiced running
on weekends.
In our basement
I made my own bomb shelter,
a corner with my transistor radio,
flashlight, sleeping bag,
comic books
and a Hostess Lemon Pie.
On Sundays
when my parents
were drunk and fighting
I’d go downstairs to hide,
eat that pie,
read Classic Comics,
listen to KJR channel 95 AM radio
to drown out the nuclear bombs
going off upstairs
in our kitchen.
About the Author
Ann Randlette worked for 33 years as a cardiac sonographer and gladly retired to Olympia, Washington. She has had the time to write poetry and take photographs, some of which have been published in Oddball Magazine, Algebra of Owls, Headline Poetry & Press, Rats Ass Review, The Stray Branch, Sybil, Umbrella Factory Magazine, and various other internet sites over the past 9 years. That some of those sites are now missing, on hiatus, or defunct is not, she feels, entirely her fault instagram.com/annnr53