PAUL D. DEANE is a computational linguist by profession and a poet by avocation. Since 1999, he has edited Forgotten Ground Regained, a website and (since 2023) a quarterly journal devoted to modern English alliterative verse. Three of his poems appeared in Dennis W. Wise’s 2023 anthology, Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival: A Critical Anthology

The Last Man on Mars

They told us to volunteer. We had what it took,

or so they said. We were the new settlers

on the Final Frontier, that bold fiction

that made Captain Kirk (not Musk) our king.

Only the best and the brightest could hope to beat

such terrible odds so far from Earth

and reclaim a world from its long wasting.

---

The rockets thundered. We sat enthroned

on rising prayer and the pulse of peril.

Orbiting outward, we followed an arc

that ate up years – but we were young,

self-proclaimed heroes, harbingers of hope.

Our landers disgorged metal golems

whose open maws swallowed mountains.

Caverns and domes drew the city of our dreams,

our eternal Rome, our new Jerusalem.

---

But the rooms were cold, miscarriages common.

In the face of famine, supply ships were few.

We found that Mars made a harsh mistress

and fought for freedom but ran short of fuel.

Our overlords learned that asteroids are easier,

a better investment that never revolts.

But robot miners need direction,

so our Olympian citadel is server central,

and here I sit on the dead-man’s switch,

lest Hal come, drawn from some dark dream,

                              and say, “I am sorry, Dave –”