Some time ago in decades past,
My neighbors split the atom.
A scientific power
Mankind couldn't rightly fathom.
Preaching patriotism,
We left foreign cities flattened.
Warplanes whizzed across the wide world,
And dropped our A-bombs at em'.

A nuclear-powered hometown,
Savage history in tow,
Bore me on the cusp of winter,
Blanketed in early snow.
Geiger counter clicking amidst
The radioactive glow,
I was born above unknowing
Of the waste that seeped below.

Ancestral architects of death,
Our engineers reviled.
But the war would end soon,
And our nations reconciled.
Generations later,
I still bear elements defiled.
Forever cursed to half-life,
Split myself, the atomic child.

Richland.
Birthplace of the worst weapon known to man.
Birthplace of myself.