Probing the Mars Project
Looking
up, you’d think - if you were watching
Satellites
and space probes racing out, and moon bugs landing
On
the alien surface of Mars. You’d be thinking that
Up-and-away
was the only solution
To
poverty, sickness and Third World starvation.
Looking
up, you would think, and mean that things really are
All
about us: the family, the new TV, the new car;
That
medical science will reap gains by exploring
The
technical problems of tin-foil exploding. The temperature
Rises:
Houston we’re cooking! They launched another turkey
When
no-one was looking. But we’re all watching
Now
as the pieces descend – the sky’s retribution
For
abandoning land. Remember a Challenger died in the sky
With
a teacher on board - a teacher we wouldn’t pay
Sufficiently
well to persuade her to stay on the earth
For
the day. Remember too what it has cost us to fly:
While
there’s water on Mars, the Sudan remains dry.
While
business and commerce commences in space, and men
With
genetics start a new kind of race, please try to reflect on
this
Faustian pact: that from one small step - for us all in fact
Comes
the patter of a million hungry caterpillar tracks.
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