At 1.23am, April 26,1986, two explosions destroyed reactor Four at the nuclear plant in Chernobyl, Russia. Huge clouds of radioactive gases and debris rose five miles into the atmosphere depositing hazardous material across the globe. Hundreds of people, known as Liquidators, gave their lives to clean up the damage.

They gave for the world to survive
Hearing no more a child's laughter
Not seeing our tears for lives cut short
Weeping for those yet to be born.

Cities, towns, villages evacuated
Millions removed from radiation pollution
Fallout covering half the planet
Nowhere safe from the deadly rain.

The sacrifice of the Liquidators
Dying capping Reactor Four
Was supreme human endeavour
Giving lives to save millions.

Still they die the children of Chernobyl
Born broken, deformed, cancer ridden
Dead and buried before teen years
In an exclusion zone lasting three thousand years.

Colin Ian Jeffery

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/chernobyl-3/