In the Shambles
(For the Jews)

They became the kings
of things who used
light in miraculous ways.
The people had given up
on elephants but the dogs
kept a watch going anway
and were adopted faster than people.
This was at the time
of extra-ordinary heavens,
each one better than the next.
Massive libraries were as hollow
as the sacred sounds
they hoped to project:
hard to find, rare, on request
put precious little stock in the litter.
Motion turned up everywhere
in fact, water played more
than one game in alchemy.
Generational handicaps were
not much of a concern
in the smaller societies
where chiefs had traded
the grass shares for better digs
and no one paid any longer
for a just cause or an actual
spirit play. Spin-wheels bled
personal drama into a worn-out
battter of happy-go-lucky
and hunky-dory handshakes
made motors stall and babies weep.
Imperial highways took years
to barge through and complete
armies were gathered from
the prisons to customize the sides.
Battle scars stained just about
every podium a kind of dull gray
with speeches called mark my words.
When the great huge storm
came up from every south,
twice as often in the north,
fallen rain grew more
useless every single day.
We struggled against the doors
which refused to shut right
because of the glaciers
whose groans kept us awake
way into the night.
So much for all these plugs
we used to say when basically
all the vendors left pieces
the size of moth's eyes.
Each little place had one
important theocracy -
the chiming kept knives
and razors sharp enough
to gut fish for the old
restaurant we used
to look at and long for.
At last however, the ground
became as flat as it used to be.
The maps stretched for miles
and miles took years to explain.
We tried to get word out
as soon as we could.

http://www.wisconsinproject.org/pubs/articles/1987/heavywatercheaters.htm

Because of heavy water, France, India, and Israel all have been able to make nuclear explosives free of international control.