POEM
Atmosphere
The canals of Mars
beseech various oxides, vast
dust storms
of a dulled red,
a daytime warmth
that only reaches so far.
Let’s call these fissures canals
so we’ll think of Venice
looking through our telescope
as Mars comes this close
in this our anniversary year
with its thin atmosphere
and, to be probed,
its extreme cold.
Source: Poetry (October 2009).
This poem originally appeared in the October 2009 issue of Poetry.
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A.V. Christie is the author of Nine Skies (University of Illinois Press, 1997), which won . . . MORE »
