Flakes emitted from the process stack
could be discerned by the eye
the way one might hear the taps
of countless leather soles
treading a busy bus lot
and yet not attend them —

not notice their drift and fall.
Say the click of my mother"s heels
as she pushed one baby in a carriage
and pulled another by the hand
through the nearby village in August —
as it snowed radioruthenium.
She wouldn"t know to listen.

If only she"d thought to ask
why snow fell that summer.
If only the villagers had asked
why 17,000 signs were erected
all over the desert to
Keep Off the Grass.