An Elegy for Opportunity

[Shortlist]

 

“NASA is giving silent Mars rover one last opportunity to respond before declaring it dead after 15 years.” – @APHealthScience

 

You were never built to last, they say.
Ninety days, tops, before your wheels
stop turning, your metallic frame
coming to rest under a sheet
of Martian dust.

But days became months,
became fourteen years of you
marathoning across Mars,
roving for miles, exceeding
everyone’s expectations.

And we watched from home,
feet firmly planted on Earth
as a dust storm
choked your planet
and the screen went dark.

Eight months of silence

of unanswered messages,
of NASA sending commands
and prayers, and songs and
I wonder

Did you hear them?
Did you recognize each clever lyric?
While you gathered
the strength to utter your last
series of soundbytes

My battery is low
and it’s getting dark.

And when I too must go,
let it be like you.
Beyond my time, and quietly.
As the world goes dark
and the dust settles.

Header photograph © Sarah Huels.