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If a rock on Mars cracks open and no one sees it

Julian Matthews

If a poem is written but never seen, does the universe still read it?
If a song is composed but never played, does the universe still hear it?
If art is created but never shown, does the universe still value it?
If a dream is dreamt but no one remembers it, does the universe still awaken to it?

If a rock on Mars cracks open and no one sees it—does the universe still care?

Oh solitary, fractured rock on Mars,
we earthlings, scientists no less, “discover” you after millennia yet still choose to insult you—
Isn’t it just typical colonizer mentality to make fun of the natives?
To infantilize your broken-ness
To invalidate your existence
To excavate your insides—
and rip your Martian heart out?

If a rock on Mars cracks open and no one sees it, does the universe still care for you?
Yes it does.

I do.
You are no one’s “primal fault”
The universe peers into your sol and sees your shiny centre
It cradles your alluvial despair in its sturdy hands
It perceives your rough edges as only poetry
It lowers its ear to your fissure and hears you sing
And when it is quiet, late at night
and you cry alone, it lulls you to sleep—
and paints you a Venusian dream

(Poem was prompted after NASA’s Kevin M. Gill tweeted a Mars rock captured by the Perseverance Rover and labelled it Butt Crack Rock)

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