389 Poem by RIC BASTASA

August 6,1945,
B-29......
Enola Gay.....
the island of Tinian

headed north by northwest.....
on the deltas.....
Honshu Island

.....civilian population of 300,000 and
....43,000 soldiers.

Little Boy, The bomber,509th...Colonel Paul Tibbets, ....31,000
8: 15 a.m. Hiroshima
released 'Little Boy, '
9,700-pound uranium bomb,

over the city. Tibbets dove away
avoid the anticipated shock wave.

Forty-three seconds later,
a huge explosion
lit the morning sky

Japanese Second Army
were doing calisthenics.

'The city was hidden
by that awful cloud...
boiling up,
mushrooming,
terrible and
incredibly tall, ' Tibbets recalled.