Week of May 15th Featured Writer: Randi Clemens

For Catherine, 1938

No one told them. And maybe

it was out of ignorance, or to keep

them ignorant. No one told them

how deadly it would be to touch

camel hairs to lips, camel hairs

to faces. Two faces. Same glow.

These were luminous processes,

the undark we call Luna. No one told

them. No one told them that their bones

would become brittle, their teeth

would fall out. But the nightmare

was real, no sleeping.

And the anticipated tick-tock was

more than just time – a noticeable

limp in a crippling body.

That their Radium jaws were just a part

of her Radium, their Radium stained lives,

their Radium-shining lives.