At sunset, after walking up the Shoemaker Ridge spine
Of this rocky island – past the eye socket
Of Odyssey, through the “Rock Garden” of
Broken boulders and blocks
Standing around it like vandalised gravestones
In a martian cemetery, they’ll drop down from Greeley
Haven, boots crumping through the North Pole dust,
And set up camp right here.
Here – on the north edge of the Cape,
With the peaks of the eastern mountains painted
Gold with Ares alpenglow, and their own shadows
Stretching across Endeavour’s dustbowl floor,
Like Opportunity’s did so many years before,
They’ll pitch their tent – kids, mum and dad
On a much-needed family holiday
Away from the Outpost’s habs and labs;
Away from the madness of trying to survive
On a world where death is always just an icy breath away.
Here – a blessed sanctuary, somewhere to lazily
Re-read much-loved, antique paper copies
Of the tall tales of Bradbury, Robinson and Clarke;
To kneel down in the bone-dry sand,
Picking up stones in fat, gloved hands
And imagine their epic history,
Tossed here from o’er the horizon
By impacts that set the planet ringing
Like a bell, flying through the air like shells
In a geological battle Tolkien would have envied.
Here – a perfect place to sit on makeshift
Camping chairs in once-white now sepia surface suits
And watch the New World go by;
Or lay on their backs and find simple delight
In the changing colour of the sky,
Sliding through a spectrum of martian hues,
From the gunmetal greys of the dusty dawn
To the warm caramels of mid-day,
Before falling all the way back again.
And then, as the Sun drops towards the endless sands,
Plunging the land into a lavender-hued twilight,
They’ll stand together, hand in hand,
Staring at the western sky, smiling at the sight
Of a blue-and-green sequin star shining
There – but not thinking “That’s Home”,
For home will be all around them,
Reflected in each glittering gypsum vein,
Etched into every dusty stone
And shattered crockery rocky plate;
Burning in each heaven-skating shooting star…
© Stuart Atkinson 2012
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