The grim device, tight and precise,
Blew up but tightly held the pressure in
'Til mass rebelled to bring forth hell—
And matter threw up all it had within.

Across the sands and blasted lands
He watched the scene with goggles tossed aside;
They were too dark to see the spark,
The flare of the compacted actinide.

Too bright! He ducked down from the sight,
The afterimage purpling his view.
The curse and gift of how he lived:
To see it for himself was how he [i]knew.[/i]