Pangs of Love and Other Writings by David Wong Louie

Author:David Wong Louie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Washington Press

One Man’s Hysteria—Real and Imagined—in the Twentieth Century

WHEN THE FIRST bombs fall, I will be ready. Not with fishing nets or Geiger counters or fallout shelters, but with poetry—memorized, metabolized, and ready to recite. Only poetry can save us now. Civil Defense will blow its sirens and jam the airwaves with survival tips, but after the bombs fall these will be nothing but desultory noise in a world of sound and light.

They call them missiles now. Not simply missiles, but missiles with multiple nuclear warheads with enigmatic names: MX, MIRV, ICBM. But I prefer to call them bombs. “Bombs” sounds homier, cozier. The world frightens me, but I haven’t lost my good senses. I don’t suspect the Communists of suicidal leanings. In theory the Soviet Union is a fine idea; I believe the Chinese are among the most humane people on earth. But the experts at the Pentagon don’t agree. They are suspicious and eager to defend. This I find more troublesome than a source of comfort. I’m not paranoid but neither is my skin lined with lead. So, owing to the recent preponderance of doomsday forecasts, I’ve taken up the reading of poetry. One can never be too cautious in these subatomic times.

It was Sunday morning and, as had been my habit each weekend for the past few months, I read poems to Laura from the anthology I kept in a strongbox beneath our bed. “Shut up, sweet,” Laura mumbled to the wall, “let me sleep a while longer.” Since we were back-to-back and I couldn’t see her speak, I pretended I couldn’t hear her either. Propped on my elbow, I leafed through the tome. I said, “Sleep at that reading, later. I always do.” I glanced at the head of each ragged column, page after page, waiting for a familiar title or name to catch my eye. “Okay,” I said, “who wrote this?” It was still early, so I started her with something easy:

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