A REQUESCAT FOR SPACE PROBES



We are so cruel to our space probes,
our bubbles of primate curiosity;
we send them out to die
among the moons of Jupiter –
Europa like a bloodshot eye,
acne-pizza cankered tangerine
Io turning itself inside out,
Callisto’s scattershot crystal ball,
almost-a-planet Ganymede.
We carelessly leave them orbiting Ceres
with its sparkling mountains,
we crash them into comets shaped like
deformed potatoes and rubber ducks,
smelling and tasting all the way.
We leave them to roam
the rusty deserts of Mars
playing “Happy Birthday”
to themselves once a year
until their hearts and wheels give out.
Perhaps most heartless of all,
we send them like loyal dogs
out into the interstellar darkness
onward and outward,
until we can no longer

hear them barking.

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