Oppenheimer’s Soul and the Mathematical Sublime

by Matthew Tierney

The man with a tattoo of
da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’
the entire length of his forearm
tells me something about belief or beauty.
It’s for us to choose.

Down the gallery hall
a Baroque sculpture of Christ crucified.
Suffering like normal.
Life-sized.

How far are you willing to go?

1951, Nevada.
Fur afire from the blast wave,
a rabbit lights out over the desert floor
outrunning recurring terror.
Here’s as close to

the truth as I can get you:
the radiation leak off an old tube TV
could separate the human form
from its matter.

If you think you can imagine that,
you possibly can’t.

— from Juniper Volume 1, Issue 2