"O Bomb I love you
I want to kiss your clank eat your boom
You are a paean an acme of scream
      a lyric hat of Mister Thunder
O resound thy tanky knees
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
BOOM ye skies and BOOM ye suns
BOOM BOOM ye moons ye stars BOOM
nights ye BOOM ye days ye BOOM
BOOM BOOM ye winds ye clouds ye rains
go BANG ye lakes ye oceans BING
Barracuda BOOM and cougar BOOM
Ubangi BOOM orangutang
BING BANG BONG BOOM bee bear baboon"

In 1958, Gregory Corso writes this love poem to an atomic explosion. When he read "Bomb" in England, people threw shoes at him. Too soon maybe? (World War II ended in 1945, you know?)

Of course, this piece is satire. Corso wrote it to critique the un-caring violence of war. But not only had WWII just ended, people were also really caught up in the hysterics of the Cold War at the time.

So Corso was probably asking too much of his audience in this piece. The threat of nuclear annihilation loomed large in everyone's minds, and there wasn't anything funny about it.

How can one love a bomb? E-harmony has no categories for bombs. Or bomb-lovers, for that matter. Er. Sorry, not funny.

What does Corso mean, then? Hint: in addition to the bomb, he mentions skies and moons and stars and thunder here. So we think he's suggesting that we should embrace anything that frightens us. Or makes us feel small and stupid.

But especially those things that frighten us that are of our own design. Unlike all the cosmos and meteorological phenomena, we hand-made the atom bomb. Which means that Corso is likely saying, "you brought the bomb into the world; you can't undo that, so you have to learn to live with it."

B-words are the rhythmic heart of this poem. And jazz is its inspiration. "BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM" sounds like beating the snare drum in the jazz quartet. It's harsh, staccato, and evocative of bomb blasts.

How very onomatopoetic of you, Mr. Corso.

You'll notice that the poem's rhythm is also a bit unpredictable. The repeated "BOOM"s keep the reader from getting too comfortable. Just like a real atom bomb, these words crop up at any moment. So the rhythm of this piece creates a sense of danger, too.

As was true during the Cold War, there's a lot of anxiety involved in not knowing when the next big "BOOM" may come.