In my mind twisted I nurtured it

and in the smelting house of hell fashioned

and in darkness forged …

I one day resentful of humanity,

seeped in evil …  unsheathed my sword

and struck …

glistening white light

bright flashing from my blade,

blinded gods in the far corners of the universe

yet blind would see it;

and the titans in great awe

crouched in fear.

My friends genuflexed

and grovelled

fearful that they have lost me and my enemies

were now dead even though living

they knew I had power immeasurable

and my wrath if stirred knew no mercy.

Unleashed my sword had the dream of alchemy

imbibed within

turning lead into gold and blasting sand into glass

your flesh will be vapour, your bones ground to dust.

Even in your death I curse you;

and in your seed I plant now

monstrosities deformed and suffering

to live with you and die entombed in your grave

through the future,

carved into you with my sword.

Blinded and bestial now

I have become death,

the shatterer of the worlds.

First Atomic test - July 16, 1945

One of the scientists, who invented the atomic bomb under the Manhattan Project J. Robert Oppenheimer, though ecstatic about the success of the project, quoted a fragment remembered from the Hindu religious text ‘Bhagavad Gita’. "I am become Death," he said, "the destroyer of worlds." Ken Bainbridge, the test director, told Oppenheimer, "Now we're all sons of bitches."  The poem ‘I am death’ by Ferdinand Salvador is an imaginary verse that may have that day gone through Oppenheimer’s mind.