Little Boy by Gerda Stevenson Little Boy is on his way, snugin the metal womb of Enola Gay,all of his components prepped, but not quite ready yet – his system fine-tuned only after take-off –safety first for his birthing crew.The pilot gives full throttle: Do it for me, Momma! Overloaded, Enola Gay eats up the whole runway – Momma, come ON! –and lifts into night; six hours to go; lieutenant and weaponeer grope in torchlight along the portside catwalkto the pitch-black bay, armed with Thy might in the name of Jesus Christ –the chaplain’s prayer before flight that nailed their mission to the crossand gave it a tail wind of righteousness; and he’s primed now – no going back – Little Boy, nestling there, like the baby saviour in the virgin’s amniotic sac, carried into that bright morning on the last, steep climb to bombing altitude, and then let go; falling,six miles in 44 seconds, falling to Hiroshima below, where someone called Kazukolifts her child from his cot, the River Ota outside, its seven streams full and tranquil – slack water at high tide,while high above in cloud-flecked blue Enola Gay banks into her getaway –a nine-mile dash – and makes it by a hair’s breadth, chased by shimmers from a ghostly flash; barely born, Little Boy has made his mark: lit ten thousand suns at every window,then snuffed them out, shocked eyeballsfrom sockets into palms, skin to rags – futile surrender flags in sudden twilit limbo –lungs and throats a desert drought, bodies burning at four thousand Celsius from the inside out. Author's note: Little Boy was the codename for the atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, the first nuclear weapon used in warfare. Little Boy was dropped by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, named after Enola Gay Tibbets, the mother of the pilot, Colonel Paul Tibbets. The accompanying observation planes were named The Great Artiste and Necessary Evil. Editor's note: Gerda Stevenson's latest book is Quines, read about it here.