H. Is Dreaming Again: Herman Kahn Writes a Letter to the Rooskies

Let’s say the war’s

Begun:  our massive

Machines girding under

The weight of the Rockies

Ready to fire.  Our sleek

Submarines floating somewhere,

Could be the Baltic, could be

Anywhere the cold-free

Burst of neutrons,

Of plutonium and

Lithium 6 over your heads.

Let’s say the war is on

The radio:  the crack

And static of unknown

Commands, the halting

Tone of your comrades

As they see the missiles

Come in, shattering Moskva

And creaming the Urals—

All you’ll have left, all

You ever had left

Was Pushkin and vodka.

I know by now my

Radioactivity surpasses

Yours.  The might of

The laser and microwave,

My citrus screwdriver--

Between the different

Things going on today,

I forgot to call you back.