Sometimes I have bad dreams - this one sucks.

[londonbard]

When they sent the new probe to Venus
It was built to withstand the acid and heat of Hellfire.
Newsreaders joked to us that the deadly planet
Suffered an extreme form of global warming.
With caustic winds fit for a volcano’s heartburn,
And mists that would scorch the breath from a salamander.

When they sent the new probe to Venus
It slid around the atmosphere like a spoon through boiling soup,
Scientists cheered together as the cameras held
Transmitting back their images of sterile heat,
Of weathered rocks wind-scoured by lifeless sand.
Into strange shapes that rarely looked like gravestones.

When they sent the new probe to Venus,
It sent pictures home and they searched them like anxious parents,
Scientists looked at each other when one said, “A city!”
Then looked away and avoided each other’s faces.
Sending the camera drones in a dance 'round formations,
Speckled with gaps that could never be windows and doorways,

When they sent the new probe to Venus,
The stark impervious probe that had orbited hellfire,
Scientists said, “A pity the thing self-destructed,
Some unforseen glitch that shattered it there in its orbit.”
(Nobody saying, “But then, they would never believe us”.)
Most going on to involvement in other researches.

Comments

[kimuro.livejournal.com]

You've put into words that waking nightmare that I often fear. I am reminded something a cartoon possum once said "We have met the enemy and he is us." (Pogo)

Beannachd leibh, Caitrin a Masaitiusadh

[londonbard.livejournal.com]

I was just waking when the newsreader made a joke about Venus having anextreme form of global warming, and this just ... followed.