Chernobyl (ten years later)

Chernobyl, Ten Years Later

                 -Joy Stalvey Barefoot

Crayon colored

carnival rides

screech in this silent city.

Chernobyl,

haunted by ghosts

of man’s exploits,

ghosts of ’86.

Eerie silence

surrounds

this surrealistic city.

One yellow slipper,

an abandoned doll,

a teddy bear . . .

A phantom carnival calliope

calls across this young,

once bustling city

as swing seats

in crayon colors

screech

to the thrill

of Chernobyl’s ghosts

riding

on a gentle

deadly

wind . . . .

(Written after watching a documentary on the Chernobyl disaster ten years after the disastrous event, and called to mind now after the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan.)