Portside

Forecast

By Philip Fried

Even in the widespread valley fog

caused by auspicious radiating conditions

and wet soil, the President will not lose

sight of his "shadow," the officer-silhouette

toting the pigskin whose innards are top secret.

Though water vapor imagery depicts

only a gradual approach of an upstream

short wave and heavy overcast will be slow

to depart, the nuclear bomb's core and trigger,

stored separately, can be fetched for assembly pronto.

Despite a low amplitude ridge of high pressure

that will give way to a more zonal pattern

with a diffuse system and an unsteady

dry front, the long-range bombers with pre-armed

nuclear bombs are always aloft and ready.

Although the southern edge of the westerlies

will get close enough to introduce high thin clouds

but the low to mid levels will remain

too dry to support any precipitation,

the codes could still be transmitted, for inundation.

Philip Fried's seventh book of poetry, just out, is Squaring the Circle (Salmon, 2017). His previous book, Interrogating Water and Other Poems(Salmon, 2014) was praised by The Guardian for "the valor and vision of its protest." His poems and reviews have appeared in numerous journals. Web site: http://www.philiphfried.com