Rose Mary Boehm: Sunsets on Mars are Blue

Scientists have just possibly found a medicine
that slows the development of Alzheimer’s.
They are working on a vaccine against HIV.
Astronomers capture radio signals
from a distant galaxy.
The Russians are getting a space craft ready
on a rocket of some major proportions
to rescue two astronauts from the stricken
space station. SpaceX plans to use the Starship
to fly a Japanese businessman around the moon.
Oh, and several artists too. Wonder who.
We’ll soon be sending settlers to Mars.
They’ll be sitting on their porches contemplating
the Martian sunsets.
Meanwhile, concerned citizens are afraid of people
who doubt the gender they were assigned at birth,
afraid of people who love
their own gender.
Deny that slaves ever existed.
Burn books.
Idolize the Golden Calf and then some.
The honorable justices of their so-called Supreme Court
are denying women control of their bodies
and possibly would like, as a next step,
to forge a bond with the clergy of Iran who condemn
to death by hanging any woman who shows her hair,
or with Afghanistan’s Taliban
who deny women the right to education,
independent movement, and even Kabul’s
female mannequins are masked and hooded.
Slaughterhouses Ukraine and Gaza.
While sunsets on Mars are Blue.

Copyright Rose Mary Boehm. From Life Stuff (Kelsay, 2023).

Rose Mary Boehm is a German-born British national living and writing in Lima, Peru, and author of two novels as well as eight poetry collections.