Robert Borski
Sorry, Mr. Bradbury, there are no lemonade
stands or white picket fences here; nor
will you find sterile encampments or fields
of shitatoes, Messieurs Musk and Damon.
Rather, this is the other red planet, the one
that exists on the underside of the Arean dream —
reality TV Mars.
Here there are neither pristine lakes,
nor carefully-manicured ski runs at Olympus Mons,
but used condoms in the canals of Schiaparelli,
and the broken warriors that smile back
to you from skid row in downtown Helium
(at least the ones who made it back
from the Battle for Grover’s Mill) have
the meth-head dentition of that other Burroughs.
(Bill, not E.R.)
Meanwhile, even as trailer trash princesses
proclaim their right to choose (“You can’t
have an omelette without breaking eggs”),
the royal family of John and Deja Carter-Thoris
attempts to suppress photos of their piss-drunk
son passed out in a smashed rocket-sled,
and are still clinging to the diversionary tactic
innundating the airwaves about how planetary
hero and pride of the Space Corps,
Commander Marvin Martian, is about to fake-
land on Phobos with his robot dog.
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