Issue 91 – The Last Days of Mars

green world become red
dusty plains devoid of life
cities in ruin
canals no longer flowing
not even a memory

By DJ Tyrer

It finally happened, our green world turned red
And as expected, our leaders had fled
Left without water, we went underground
Asleep in our tombs, one day we’d be found.
The traitor’s descendants, it seems they forgot
Their ancestors left us to burn or to rot
So they sent their rovers, to study our stones
Not long now, they’ll discover our bones
And we are debating on peace or on war
Remember, your forebears betrayed us before

By Nieske den Heijer

From a Yorhi Tomb
By Harris Coverley

red red riverbed —
crystal weeds a-withering
‘neath a smaller sun —
pyramids almost crumbled
but for vaults beneath the sands

Photograph by Cardinal Cox

The Last Martians
By Cardinal Cox

Hesperian Era – the great volcanoes of the Tharsis Bulge erupted – ejecting sulphur compounds to turn thin rain acidic. Northern lakes beneath dissipating atmosphere freezing into permafrost. Olympus Mons stretched and stutters into the sky growing centimetre by centimetre. In the low gravity lava tubes swell and once sealed become chemically rich hones for anaerobic life. Down towards the pluton, warmth lingers in hot springs – black smokers. The organic stew is just enough to provide nutrients for trapped lifeforms. Each maze of tunnels beneath the surface an individual biome. Bottle garden isolated for a thousand million years.

Ends

bed of dead ocean
final gasp of life hiding
becomes a fossil

By DS Davidson