Tucked within the walls
of origami boxes
lingers a particular kind of air.
Something like

Hiroshima
trapped between your ears.

Something small.
Something combustible.
Something scared.
Something made of atoms.

“Oh, Adam!
What has happened?”

We rest our stress
on the daintiest things.
Things we must handle
with a delicate touch.

Peter Whalen teaches English and Creative Writing at Milwaukee High School of the Arts. His poems have appeared in various journals, such as Free Verse and The Wisconsin Poets Calendar, and he has contributed freelance journalism and editorials to news publications like The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and The Shepherd Express. He is the former Education Coordinator at Woodland Pattern Book Center and Editor-in-Chief of The Cream City Review. He received a Ph.D. in English/Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in May 2000.