Life on Mars

Flocks of small birds
           maybe a hundred or more
flying in dark clouds
           that resemble bee swarms
or the swarms of ions
           and electrons in gases
while the Mars rover
           sends back graphic images
of what climate change
           can do to a planet

Dust
           as far as the eye can see
and a barren loveless surface
           and what we most long for
is life
           here or anywhere else
in the universe
           rich fertile recreational life
in every shape and form
           warm technicolor life
and the atomic pulse of love
           that never dies

John Lyons