Harry Truman Lives

New human emotion:
the satisfaction
of deleting 
unwanted names
from a list of contacts.

It’s not done the same way
as it was formerly,
there’s no tearing 
of pages from
an old address book,
not the same as burning
the book
or the envelopes
bearing the addresses,
letters, sentiments,
and the very spit
of the people
set to vanish — 

no.  

It’s the thrill
at our magical potency
in the moment
of vaporization.
We say:

at last,
here the dream of 
the Nuclear Age 
is fulfilled,
one annoying soul
at a time.