and it’s getting dark. it has all gone
dark. there is a cold seeping
through wire veins to the center of me.
dust chokes out the stars. the wind
offers no forgiveness, and so i anchor
myself and begin to dream.
i dream of fire, of heat so blazing i was
born again; of what you pray for
when you’re falling.
i dream of where the land was
hollowed out into nothing; of the
impacts that came before me.
i dream of sols when i was lost, or trapped,
or could not remember myself. i dream of
someone who reached through
the years to always bring me back. i
dream of places only my shadow has
touched. of waking up to the
kiss of sunlight. and i dream of
loss. of looking backward. of the
hush that comes when you become
alone. i dream of miles behind me and
one-way trips and of gypsum glinting
through rust-rose dust. i dream
wonder and discovery and of
doing what’s impossible; of the grace
of beautiful and proud desolation.
sometimes in my dreams i hear
music playing. it sounds muffled, like
a phonograph underwater, or a melody
caught in static. beneath the
music, i hear voices. the louder i
try to answer them, the softer
they get. a calm settles. i dream
of cornflower sunsets. i dream of
light coming again
READ MORE
The Mars rover Opportunity is dead. Here’s what it gave humanity. [National Geographic]
Recovery Commands [Poets Reading the News]
Catherine Strayhall is a nerdfighter from Kansas City and a Kansas State University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Literature and Creative Writing. She is a two-time winner of the annual Sullivan Poetry Award at K-State, and her work has appeared in The Kansas City Star, elementia, and on the website of Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society. In 2017 she created a project called “Mobile Poetry” on Facebook which features a Google Map of location-based poetry around Manhattan, Kansas.
Image is the final photo taken by Opportunity, courtesy of NASA.
