The Things Crossed Out

During the evening of April 26th 1986 a young engineer at the Chernobyl power plant was on the phone to one of his superiors who was at home. This was in the hours prior to the explosion, the young man at the control desk was puzzled because the manual had lines that were crossed out and other bits added in biro. His boss told him to ‘do the things that are crossed out’. What follows is a sequence of poems crafted in honour of that moment. The sequence is chronological and I have no reason to doubt the authenticity of the material.

San Francisco


Grants Pass


Eugene


Portland


Seattle


Vancouver


Olympia


Missoula


Bozeman


St Paul


Madison


Chicago


Royal Oak


Toronto


Newport


Bethesda


Raleigh


Winston-Salem


Asheville


Asheville corrected


Atlanta


New Orleans


Birmingham


Huntsville


Athens


Athens corrected

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