The stone marker
A memorial to those who had come
But otherwise left no mark
After the third colony failed
The only visitors would be
Passersby and tourists checking off a box
As the momentary daylight faded
The mist which was once my Toyota
Settled into the crater
That had been a parking lot
I hoped the owner
Of that formidable weapon
Hadn’t acquired my new position
The concrete barrier I’d sheltered behind
Suddenly seemed feeble protection
Night returned and I got the fuck outta there
The monumental lines of architecture
Seemed to flex
As a bow drawn by its string
Then paused there
Taught, straining
As if for a steadying breath
The release
Was even more startling
And he felt the shock wave
When the discharged tension
Shook the earth
As the mammoth thing
Quite simply
Leapt from the ground
Untethered as it was
From gravity
It swam lazily
Through the thin atmosphere
Toward a horizon
It would soon enough
Disappear beyond
Few
Enough left who could
Read
The irrelevant past
Now
Silly stories of
Love
Self help for plentiful
Times
Dystopian imaginings for a world of
Ease
So it was no wonder salvagers
Found
No value in printed
Words
No one
Ever
Does
Blessed shade and gloom
In an existence
Which fears the light
Grateful for each eclipse
Beauty in the shadows
Mystery in the illumined
Too bright for eyes to see
Lavender sun
Cobalt clouds
Canary sky
I love
That I get to bring
Such visions to life
On a world
Of alien beauties
We’ve given familiar names
So not to feel
So far from home
But we’d brought our seeds
Planted our trees
Spread our grasses
Harvested the carbon
To surface the roads
To refine the fuel
To run our cars
Until
But for a few facts
Of geology
Meteorology
And astronomy
It was a world
Just like home
But on closer inspection
I realized
It was the surface
Of a turquoise planet
Where a river once ran
Along a cerulean canyon
Carved through southern aqua badlands
Pix to Words 