Implosion
A nuclear reactor, when its heat
Exceeds a prescribed limit, may implode
With cataclysmic force, destroying all
In its vicinity. To help prevent
Disaster it is carefully controlled
By stringent safeguards that can be deployed
To dissipate excessive energy
Whenever need to use them should arise.
Inspection viewports are provided, too,
(Remotely managed to decrease the risk
To those observing the reactor’s heart),
So that skilled scientists can monitor
The status of that puissant core, (more hot
Than tropic mid-day’s sun’s intensest force),
And modulate the rate of energy
Conversion and contain it safely there.
For dire emergencies a master-switch
Is always close at hand, ready to cut
The source of power from the core itself
By prompt extraction of its fuel-rods
And intervention of thick leaden plates —
Or introduction of liquid coolant —
Thus smothering the heat and making safe
The critical reactions of the pile
So that the melt-down risk is nullified.
[ Some love is like this nuclear device
Within its heart’s reactor. It is screened
By verbal and behavioural shield-walls,
(All carefully designed to mitigate
Its ardency), because it is too fierce
For human sense to bear until its force
Has been attenuated-down enough —
By these inhibitors’ effects –to be
Supportable by those who are exposed
To its immense affective potency).
Then, through the viewports of cool-shaded eyes
And damping-actions of care-chosen words,
That seeming-muted love may be observed,
(In almost dispassionate comfort), by
Those authorised the privilege to view.
A master-switch, to modulate excess,
Is jointly kept in trust by those who share
Access to this love’s energetic source
Of such creatively-destructive force.
For years no problem may perturb the hearts
That harbour this emotive energy
As they take care to keep it functioning
To mutual advantage; so that love’s
Fire burns under safe controls.
But one day
A partner may decide, quite suddenly
To abrogate responsibility
For their joint enterprise and secretly depart,
Taking away the key that operates
The safety-switch intended to control
Emergencies.
Such separation may
Itself declench the instability
Of that ungoverned core and rapidly
Begin its melt-down. Unless something’s done
Promptly to relieve the mounting pressure
All that passion, now quite unconstrained, soon
Will implode with catastrophic force
And shatter that lorn heart!. ]
If that were all;
If just the nuclear reactor were
To smash in countless pieces past repair,
It would be bad enough. But there are fears
That, consequential to a core-collapse,
There would be such disruptive turbulance
Irradiating from the molten mass
It must spread instant mayhem all around,
Annihilating everything that chanced
To be within its baleful radius.
The fall-out from such a catastrophe
Could poison the whole neighbourhood and spread
Its lethal influence to gravely harm
Innocent people caught up unaware,
Unwarned and unprotected from the blast
And the grim horrors of its dreadful scourge.
[ So, if one day, you find the monitor
Has gone, (after disabling the device
That mitigates the core’s excessive heat
And pressure), then sound alarms at once,
Search the whole site and neighbourhood
With all the urgency that danger breeds
To find the one who can alone avert
An imminent potential tragedy.
Failure means hope is lost, along with all
In that destabilised vicinity!. ]
In such a situation time is scarce.
Soon it will be too late. Huge pressures mount
Inexorably fast and then distil
Crushed fuel to a superheated broth
Of incandescent plasmatite
Of such vast density its gravity
Impels implosive actuality!.
Then all that fused, dynamic force released, in turn
Will sear propinquity with its fierce afterburn!.
[ As might the untamed furnace of that love’s despair
Should disillusion crush restraint beyond repair!. ]
