Miguel Mitchell's Gallery of Art, Poetry, and Short Films
Dead World Canvas
by Miguel O. Mitchell
(Star*line, volume 44, issue 3, Summer 2021)
Contradictions
Patrons notice
Straightforward
Fails
Your telescopes measure
Chlorophyll signals
Oxygen richness
A planet
Like your home
Too convenient
Too expected
Not a sucker
Read the spectra again!
Model cynically
Abiotic origins always
However unlikely
Force fit
Data of despair
We're all there is
Too jaded
Too worthless
To hope
I'm your alien cousin
The monster in your dreams
If you dream
A creator
Making science into art
On a stellar scale
I find a world
Icy sphere
My star system
Airless
Big enough
For my canvas
Hey audience!
Point your telescopes here
Don't miss my trick
Make the base coat
Cover the whole planet
With nanofactories
Fuel
Don't look away
Ready?
Now!
The darkness
Explodes into light
Patches
The size of continents
Glow!
Green
Pink
Orange
Blue
Violet
Swirling fractals
Check it out, audience
Explain it away
What's that?
Chemiluminescence
Nothing special
Look closer
The audience gasps
Eleven light years away
What are those?
Exotic molecules
Unstable
Unnatural
Destroyed in seconds
By harsh starshine
Self-generating?
Impossible
Unless...
Ah, realization
There
An artist's hand
A maker
Another aware
Like us
Soon
Stone hearts
Crumble
Hope buried
Emerges
Eleven years later
Directed maser pulse received
A data packet
With so many stories
But it's really
Just applause
I bow to my fans
And send a thank-you note
Always makes them cry