Starmen

Welcome to the Spot Writers. This month’s prompt is to write a poem about winter. Today’s tale comes to us from Val Muller, author of the kidlit mystery series Corgi Capers.

Starmen

by Val Muller

Going stir-crazy on the craft,
We open the bay doors
After an hour or so suiting up:
If any skin is left exposed,
It could wither in seconds here.

This is not our destination:
We are passing through merely.
The landscape is hostile to life,
So our stop will be brief.

Our boot-prints mar the ground
As once our species marked the moon.
This landscape is just as hostile:
Cold, colorless, barren.

Crunch, crunch, crunch
Until we try the surface with a shovel,
Digging for signs of life beneath.
Some withered grass and a broken pail
Suggest this place
Once contained life.

We can almost picture it--
Life under the drifted shapes
And ghostly shades of white,
Almost. Like a lost dream
Or the memory of a past life.

We stay out until our eyes burn
From the brightness,
Our lungs burn from the cold,
And our hearts ache for birdsong.
Then are we called in to safety.

We reenter and remove our gear,
Hanging it to dry near the bay door.
The rations? Hot chocolate
Served by the fire.
Doors sealed, the ship blasts off,
Continuing on
With climate control blasting
Fossil fuels against the cold,
Keeping us alive,
Determined to take us to
The next signs of life:
The spring’s thaw
And the summer’s song.

The Spot Writers—Our Members:

Val Muller: http://valmuller.com/blog/

Catherine A. MacKenzie: https://writingwicket.wordpress.com/wicker-chitter/

Phil Yeats: https://alankemisterauthor.wordpress.com

Chiara De Giorgi: https://chiaradegiorgi.blogspot.com/