The Dust

The cosmic elephant’s trunk
Is over twenty light years
Long. Real enough. Real enough,

Even though it’s an altered
Photograph, the stars removed,
The better to see the dust.

While someone was doing this,
And a whole team was working
With a new rover on Mars,

Millions of people tapped screens,
Shopping, dating, gossiping,
Lost in elaborate games,

Hundreds of millions, in fact,
And just a few committed
Terrible atrocities

Historians, novelists,
And filmmakers would later
Recreate in great detail,

Their language and images
So vivid it could make you
Feel sick to read or see them.