by Tony Schanuel
Perseverance Joins Curiosity on Mars
Easy, sometimes, the isolation
dig sample, make core,
capture memory, wait for reply
asynchronous, our planets
still voices come through.
Easy, sometimes, to forget about storms
wind sensor broken, you have to make do
the rise and fall, the daily drift
one crater enough like another
no hair to toss, no beach to run on.
Easy on your birthday, when
you find yourself singing,
still enprogramed,
for solitary celebration
until you break from doing
long enough to discover loneliness
all those rock traces
of all those former waters
like tears you can remember once
being whole enough to cry.
So when from the sky
some new rover comes
shiny with possibility
their hellosignal beams
straight to the heart.
I imagine you touching, as we will touch
when this is all over— hesitant,
remembering program, one hand, another
the eye to eye, the up and down,
the back again, the us.
Katherine Hagopian Berry (she/her) has appeared in the Café Review, Rise-Up Review and Glass: Poet’s Resist, among other places. Her first collection, Mast Year, was published in 2020. She is a poetry reader for the Maine Review.
Tony Schanuel is an award-winning photographer and visual artist who has fused a professional background in photography, digital technology, and painting and mark making to create fine art that transcends those mediums. His work has been featured in Digital Imaging Magazine, Computer Graphic Magazine, Wild Heart Journal, St. Louis Design Magazine, and is a featured artist in Cyber Palette and Extreme Graphics, two books showcasing digital artists and their work. He has exhibited at the Florence Biennale and his art is held in private and corporate collections including the Fine Arts Museum of Houston permanent photographic collection.