The Art of Exploration
They work like one machine
even as grunts and groans
of effort stay within
their spacesuits while they toil
with bedrock, boulders, stones,
loader and excavator,
creating in a crater
a building that will screen
them from the ultra-thin
Martian atmosphere,
and so as not to broil
from ultraviolet rays.
They plan to engineer
extensive passageways
atop which they’ll assemble
a shape that should resemble
the ancient Astrodome
in disrepair at home.
It will not quite be art,
but it will be a start.
—Martin Elster, West Hartford, CT
