From orbit you were, frankly, uninspiring.
To HiRISE’s James Bond villain’s spy satellite
Eye you were just another hole, jagged
And ragged of edge, with a wedge of rippled dust
Draped over your sunken floor. Nothing more.
So as Opportunity rolled up to your rim
Many of her backseat drivers confidently predicted
A brief, boring stay, a mere pre-Endeavour layover
Just long enough for our heroine to shuck the rucksack
From her shoulders and catch her breath
Before heading for the hills…
But you gave us views to make
Even the most hard-to-move jaws drop:
Rocks the shape of snapped-off crocodile
Tails; tilted, crazy paving-covered cliffs with
Boulders balanced on their peaks;
Chunks of curiously-coated stone,
Lonely lumps of ancient ejecta scattered
Round your crumbling edge, capped
With pitted purple scabs of What-is-that??…
No wonder we struck camp on your slopes
For so long: with so many memorable sights
To see, the horizon suddenly seemed a dream away…
But you are behind us now,
Reduced to blurred bumps and mounds
In the Rear Hazcam’s view and soon
Will not be seen at all because, at last,
Endeavour is truly in our sights,
Hogging our thoughts, day and night.
Dreams of finding phyllosillicates fill our
Heads now, as Meridiani’s asphalt-flat plain
Stretches out in all directions to touch
The butterscotch sky….
But our memories of Santa Maria’s magic
Will not soon fade. Farewell – and thank you…
© Stuart Atkinson 2011
Thanks again to my great friend “AstroO” from UMSF, who has turned this latest poem into another beautiful “poemster”, which you can find here…
