Heavy water, holy water, we are weighed on
By your waterweight, you proton-
Poisoned fission vintage we dare not sip.
A drip weighs torrents on the tongue and lip.
Tritium, trinity water, three-in-one God’s
Sweat condensed on a fuel rod’s throb,
Heavy as falling heavens, you weigh kilotons,
You weigh the source sin rinsed into the font:
Biting the apple, splitting the forbidden atom
One crime committed in common with Adam.
Contamination, come and enter,
Spill in us and make us epicenter;
The taste of knowledge is the aftertaste of loss.
This sorrow bent the knees beneath the cross.

—Amit Majmudar