Jornada del Muerta

The route of the

dead man was

the perfect place

for TRINITY – the 

unleashing of the 

undoing of the

modern world just

two hundred and ten

miles south of

Los Alamos.

We wonder why

our world has 

harvested such anger

and violence. Why

we have so great

a gap between 

the generations young

and old – more than 

usual.  Perhaps why 

we have  lost our sense 

of weapons control 

across our land.

Hoisted one hundred

feet above the sand

in a tower called the

“gadget”, 18.6 kilotons

of death were poured

out on the earth - 

vaporizing and melting

everything around

into the pretty green 

glass - made of sandstone,

clay, and the lightning

of the gods - we call trinitite.

Could the horror of 

our potential have been

set that day and the limit

of our despair been wired

into all who would come

after?  So that we would

have no hope of hope

and see no error or end to

the killing of ourselves in 

countless other ways.  We 

built a place that would 

convert all space into the 

route of the dead man.

A place that would make

mass shootings seem a

trifle and our broken

spirit seem the norm.  All

the troubles of the world

pale and are meaningless

in a world where the route

of the dead man is the

yellow brick road.  Our

souls have become undone.

***IMAGE FROM THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE