I wrote this poem after visiting Hiroshima for the first time in 2004.
It was later published in my first full-length poetry collection, We Will Disappear (2007).
While we remember August 6 as the day Hiroshima died, and August 9 as the day the same fate was handed to Nagasaki, I personally was not aware of August 5 as the anniversary of the Cowra breakout, an event that has left its mark on both Australia and Japan.