August sixth of nineteen forty-five The air was hot But I found a smile In the shade of a plane Blocking out the sun I saw an old man shudder As he focused on the sky His eyes followed a little boy He was falling from a Boeing B twenty-nine Cast out from the heavens This mourning star emits A blast of fifteen kilotons And a message to submit Blown into a gaseous state Bodies were vaporized In seconds by the blinding light Bleached, where silhouettes now reside Bodies burst into shadows That's right I'm a nuclear shadow Bodies burst into shadows That's right I'm a nuclear shadow The Manhattan Project Labeled this a real success To end the war at any cost So that Uncle Sam could rest Drowning in the river Simply to escape the flames That seemed to engulf everything Where the silhouettes now remain