deepundergroundpoetry.com

Musing about Mars

- Musing about Mars -

In thinking of mankind�s possible future destiny:
What an irony it would be, to found a colony�
On a world on which all life came to violent end,
When the gods grew angry, and decided to rend.
To tear even the atmosphere itself to but a shell,
Unleashing a storm that even they could not quell!

One day should man reach the red planet Mars,
After sailing far across the glittering sea of stars�
I wonder if they will find the places I remember!
In other flesh, in times before history�s lumber,
I walked on that world when it was not desolate.
A colony and a cradle it was, and once inviolate!
But all things change and gardens become dust,
When the gardeners have gone and so left to us:
The task of understanding why we are here!
As the past fades, and as the future calls us near,
We come full circle, ending where all began.
Be it here on Earth or upon the Martian sand,
No matter the hardships faced in order to thrive:
We will endure, we will survive: we will live!

And we will die, falling into the blood red dirt,
Only to rise again, to know a new age�s comfort.
I will still recite as I do, and sing as I oft desire�
For I sang as I did walk upon that world of fire,
As some call it, and still my songs do I yet pen.
Though the old civilizations are lost to men�
Mars remains out there, in its� lifeless sorrow.
If we as a species are to face a brighter morrow,
We must not bring with us there our old evils�
Lest darker things remind us, with ancient wills:
That we are but children in a very old universe!
Malice we harbor can become like unto a curse.
Is it wise to forget, when we could well repeat�
The events: that led an entire people to defeat?

There was a world beyond Mars once as well�
And the gods destroyed it, calling it some hell.
Its� broken remains wiped out all the dinosaurs,
As a final memento of our ancestors� mad wars.
Scarring the moon of that Earth of prehistory,
Extinguishing life on Mars in all its� diversity�
The remains of a broken world, remind us still:
What hypocrites the gods: �thou shall not kill�!
Whilst they slaughtered all who would not bow,
Until the past was erased, forgotten until now.
Always when the circle brings us nearest dawn,
Do we recall old night, both dark and forlorn!
Not all who appear mortal have man�s amnesia,
Nor humanity�s penchant for planetary hysteria!

Will we be better than those who came before?
Or shall humanity go the way of forgotten lore,
Remembered by a future species as I recall this:
The fate of Old Mars, where once did so exist�
Those lost to the annals of time�s recollection.
Lost beyond even the ancient gods� protection!
Though we are younger,
Will we prove stronger?