William Stafford

Here you will find the Poem At The Bomb Testing Site of poet William Stafford

At The Bomb Testing Site

At noon in the desert a panting lizard 
waited for history, its elbows tense, 
watching the curve of a particular road 
as if something might happen. 


It was looking at something farther off 
than people could see, an important scene 
acted in stone for little selves 
at the flute end of consequences. 


There was just a continent without much on it 
under a sky that never cared less. 
Ready for a change, the elbows waited. 
The hands gripped hard on the desert.