LUDLOW
M. E. MACFARLAND
You had never seen so many cactus flowers they stretched for miles in the margins of the Mojave there was flat-bladed agave you were sure of it you had never seen a real dust devil a real mesa a real horizon where the world ends of oases you saw none between there and Palmdale only the town of Ludlow and the metal roof of its 1950s cafÊ glinting outside in the parking lot an enormous rock stood a stele for the burgeoning nuclear industry they built nukes here dropped them underground to open the veins of iron and metals under the ground then tests revealed quite conclusively various health risks the operation was tossed over someone’s shoulders like a crumpled paper ball O it was murmured quietly there is always more to be done
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