BLU E D OT Words by Edward Alport
The first we saw was this blue dot. Faint, it was and almost lost against the star field. Some exclaimed It looks like home, but home was not Blue when we left it, and some would claim it never was at all. So as this blue dot crept up on us, we saw it was really green Even red, in places, that looked too hot to touch. Some blue there was, and white, and many colours in between. The whole lot spinning like a child’s ball. I don’t say it was perfect. It was good enough., And we’d forgotten what perfection looked like. We made it into home, though things were tough For a while after we first made landfall. Now, looking around, I can’t tell which is worst. We’re leaving this one as grimy as the first.
R EM A I N S Words by Edward Alport Look around. These are all that remain of one species, and their hope. These broken mills spin. This barely functional machine was not enough to sustain activity, They once felt this thin wind. They once knew this empty gravity. They found. And then they came. They conquered, but they could not cope.