On this day in ’58, despairing
over the bomb, Gerald Holtom designs
his symbol of hopeless man, comparing
it to Goya’s peasant, arms spread, resigned
to the firing squad—simple dark lines stretched
downward, centered by vertical black stripe
splitting the inverted V—his wretched
vision wresting geometry’s contrite
power enclosed in ring of ebony.
We’ll wear these badges worldwide throughout our
decades of endless war, hegemony.
We’ll protest—staving off disaster’s hour,
fearing for our children more than ourselves—
appearing to drones’ warped eyes as starved elves.
Roger Armbrust
February 21,
2013
