The Literary Review
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Issue 10 Page 7
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New Snow
I know the different names for snow:
dense, compact, sherbet burned into the mind
on gray days when nothing moves,
when even a finger feels a twinge of cold.
I want to leave this frozen world,
watch the mercury reach higher temperatures,
and not remain a rigid pane in frigid atmosphere.
I want to leave behind false promises,
the dull days of torpid vigor
when every limb feels enervated.
I want to crawl into a wigwam,
feed the fire, watch it grow,
become a coal of glowing embers.
Today I saw a picture of Mercury,
our smallest celestial neighbor,
its egg-yolk shining in the sun.
Oh to inhabit the sunlit top,
the only once illumined pole.
For there, in the melting ice,
a patch of life begins to grow.
Frontier Life
A rocket launched from a pad on earth,
a robot to roam in place of our feet,
the journey resembles a trip out west
to massive, bloody, Arizona rocks
dotting the horizon of burnt soil
once part of abandoned shrines.
What will this mechanical rover
discover in million year old rubble?
Amino acids, the building block,
complex proteins, remnants of water,
soil once teeming with life
now parched by a cold desert?
Few men or women will live to see
the secrets of a planet unfold
until we send those of our own
to stand, touch, smell, and hear
in their own minds an alien land.
And soon, once the rocks are mined
for chemical riches, others will follow,
build pueblos like our native people,
restore canals to their former glory,
praise the sun even in painful cold.
Aliens Traveling Light Speed from Another Galaxy, Observing Earth
Look at these pathetic creatures!
Is this the best they can do?
afraid to leave their planet’s orbit
but once in thirty or forty years
to land on the nearest dead moon.
Instead they circle their planet
and re-enter the atmosphere
always with damage to their craft,
the weight of gravity too great upon them.
For this they send probes in their stead
to test, mine, and explore
the other planets closer to the sun.
They can’t even travel beyond the moon!
Why not crush these dwarfs now?
They have no future confined
to what will soon become
a little ball of dust and cloud.
Now teeming, they will one day
annihilate themselves.
We left our home planet light years ago
on the verge of its explosion
when we perfected hyperdrive
and defied gravity.
We saw these primitives in telescopes
at the dawn of their race
when they were but ape men
beating clubs in branches of trees.
At this time, we had not yet learned
to travel the speed of light.
We could only watch them
from a comfortable distance.
Now we have the power
to descend as gods on these bugs,
end their petty squabbles,
and make them serve our desires.
But hold! We should be wary
to take rash action
lest we forget why we left our home.
Instead, let us observe them,
send mocking messages to them,
and where necessary,
intervene to prevent disaster.
Let them discover for themselves
the mysteries of light speed
and hyper drive; the desire
to rise above their station
and leave their stifling planet
to discover the wide expanse
of the great cold void beyond.