Michael Antonucci’s creative and scholarly work can (or will soon) be found in publications including Arkansas Review, African-American Review, Callaloo, Cortland Review, Byline, Cold Mountain Review, Near South, and VIA. ) A selection from his longer poem “BAKER BOWL” was included in The City Visible: Chicago Poetry for the New Century (CRACKED SLAB, 2007). He is part of the Jimmy Wynn Ensemble, a
“The H-Poems”
“My mother played the piano beautifully.
She really wanted me to become a concert pianist.”
--Edward Teller, Ph.D.
“Father of the Hydrogen Bomb”
Niagara
"
Onguiaahra: “the strait."
(before film
tourists sketch the Falls
in charcoal,
crayon
pencil,
ink
daredevils
( barrel hoops
feather pillows
lost lives
trying to conquer
Edward Teller, Ph.D.
(ii)
(Given:
Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle
makes it
impossible
to know
completely,
accurately
the present
If, for instance,
in 1914
a certain vehicle
carrying
a Crown Prince
were delayed,
there may not have been a world war.
We, however,
had precise
understanding of
the hydrogen
atom
Niagara
(winters)
visitors flocked to
the Falls
in winter
walked
beneath it
on the
ice bridge
locals built
shanties
sold
tourists liquor & curiosities
below;
the Falls
ice bridge
broke
(February 4, 1912
three (tourist) lives lost.
Testing
iii
Ten miles from zero-point
I was sure it had misfired.
( the sand, our heavy welding glasses
I thought: “too late”
tipping my glasses,
I removed a curtain,
and light
bright
as sunlight entered
I was impressed.
I saw its brilliant flash.
Oppenheimer Bhagavad-Gita
"I am become death the destroyer of worlds."
H 1 Hydrogen
a great no glop bubble
fizz up (fizz-sick
monster head layer cake
home some (no)where:
Niagara, Sarov
(
a land
burnt
over
bathed
with
acid fire foam
cooper’s hoops pop rivets
a pocket watch
shadow
the city
etched
(crushing
ink, chalk
paper and slate
©
