All That Bare Earth and Clay

Mars gives images
Of lifeless beauty,
Beauty that life sees,

As it’s seen beauty
In glacial landscapes
And empty blue skies.

Aren’t you delighted
That evolution
Let your ancestors

Feel lifeless beauties
And didn’t cull them
For being unfit?

Naturally, awe
And wonder, even
For the nonliving

World, motivated
Wanting to go on,
And nothing promotes

Going on like life
That wants to go on.
Nevertheless, Mars,

All pale skies and dust,
Shouldn’t seem pretty,
But it does, somehow,

The dirt that isn’t
Earth, not a garden,
Bare, not truly clay,

Beyond disaster,
Just sitting there, real
World, uncanny sky.