martial theme
a tomb under mars
i mean paris
(there’d be quite different
contents
to exo
exa
examine)… dammit!
take 2
a tomb under mars
would save a lot
of excavation
presuming
it to be big enough to
fit
a dehydrated queen for her next life under the dust
and out of the wind
mebbe there’d be a persistent hum
too subtle for us to interpret, like a
keep out
audioloop
in martian
for the thin martian air
take 3
planet paris
what’s its essence, huh?
a certain je ne sais quoi?
the locals abscond from the heat during the
last stage of the tour de mars
but finally
who wears the winner’s jersey
as they ride under the arc de triomphe?
take 4
a sumptous
tomb several clicks
under the martian
surface
an opalesque queen
in hibernation her robot
minions wait to switch on the
moment she wakes
phew!
here come the earthlings
not an orbit too soon
take 5
a few clicks
under the martian surface
a dehydrated queen
is entombed in suspended
antimation
it was prefigured in gargoyles
on notre-dame
or runes in iona
(already
my attention’s waning)
take 6
an opal
in the desert
a queen
in a shaft
a worker robot
wakes
take 7
will the queen
wait to be incinerated
and join the swirling
dust
or be recycled
like the rest of us?