Illustration
author notes:
I wrote 'Explosion-Affected Person'
after reading an article about hibakusha
(literally translated, explosion-affected
people), survivors of the atomic bombings
at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I was thinking
a lot about trans-generational trauma, the
after-effects of trauma being passed down
from survivors to their children. I wanted
to think about lingering trauma in a
sensory way – the idea that the sound of an
explosion could become part of someone's
genetic makeup and could be handed
down, could exist in the consciousness
of a person who never actually heard it.
Also, hibakusha and their children have
been discriminated against and, as a
result, often keep their status as survivors
a secret – so there is something of that in
the poem as well, in its smallness. It's just a
whisper, a trauma that has to be kept quiet
even as echoes of an explosion persist.
Brian Donnelly