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let’s go to Mars
I think we’re alone now
there doesn’t seem to be anyone around
– Ritchie Cordell
I love my deserts
radioactive
poison salt in the soil
all around
let’s go to Mars
next after the moon
nothing to breathe but
CO2
(clearly left by an
advanced civilization)
and there’s no
pollution at all
the place has potential
it’s get in on the
ground floor
let’s go to Mars!
you know you want to
pack a picnic set
champion lunch
we’ll meet the god of
war
(right kind of place
to banish the bellicose
and
we’ll find all the lost
socks, where else?)
life on earth was too
easy for us
problems too simple to
solve
who doesn’t love a challenge?
should we take the car
and the kids?
(questions! questions!)
seven months off the
air
(Magellan ate rats and old
shoes
before he copped it,
but he knew…)
take me in a tin can
we’ll be the first
I mean to say that
there’s nobody there
do you think that there
might be a reason?
but let’s go to Mars
anyway
you won’t see the sea
but fossick for ice
think of it as a kind
of stay-cation
on Mars
salute the blue dot
when it rises
and long for an
opposition
after a short while
there, you’ll sing
‘fly me to the moon’
(meaning the base on
the way back home)
no sea, no lake, no
river as such
though you can see
where they’ve been
Olympos Mons more than
twice the height of Everest
it’s quite the view up
there
let’s go
let’s take rover – no roads
the ultimate 4WD
adventure!
a voice is telling me
to!
and you could get
religion there
‘take a closer walk
with thee’
puffed up in a lovely
suit
yes, all those earworms
in my head
are music of another
sphere
and they have tinnitus as
well
helmet hair (spittoon
style)
if you get inside
…we’re the hum, I think
need to find out if
there’s night life on Mars
need to find a
favourite Martian
then I’ll have it made
no shade as such
(no trees, nothing
built)
but not much sun either
because of the dust
storms
and because we’re so
far away
really a challenge for
global warming
but let’s go to Mars
it’s romantic
and like I said
no one has been before
Schiaparelli must have gone
to Venice once
and I want to see the
canals
hop skip and a not much
gravity
we’ll get the weight of
the world off our shoulders
we can go up in a
weather balloon
muscle waste, bone
loss, cardio challenges
huh!
is that all you’ve got?
let’s go to Mars
we’ve already named
everything there
it’s time to plant a
flag by hand
and say ‘you had to
have been there’
pack lots of winter
woollies, you’ll need ’em
pump up the reverse
cycle
set the blanket on high
I’ve already got Mars on Ten Dollars a Day
…all the inflation risk
is at home
and though the year is
twice as long
days are much the same
of course there’s the
radiation and cancer
and the dust’s electrostatic,
sticks in your lungs like glue
but hey, it’s a doddle
compared with Venus
we could live under ice
and dust
(tumulus to the casual
observer
but we won’t have any
of those
bar drones and bots and
droids, AIs)
we’ll watch pictures of
the surface in real time
(without that delay, as
on Earth)
you can see the advantages,
can’t you!
we’ll learn so much just
by being there
we may have to bury the
last lot who tried
at least they’re a sort
of organic matter
those two little moons
are a bit of a joke
(and on the way out I
believe)
but Mars itself is
solid prospect
less dense than what we’re
used to
but at least you can
walk on it
take a care!
it’s just as round
be of good cheer
we’ll brew our own in
time
let’s go to Mars
wot-the-hell (it will
be)!
I only want to have a
look
it’s one more world
and this red planet
will be much more of a
challenge to cook
this is our red dust
destiny
Martian kids will laugh
at us later
for doubting that would
be there!
