My Battery Is Low

and it’s getting dark. it has all gone
dark. there is a cold seeping
through wire veins to the center of me.

dust chokes out the stars. the wind
offers no forgiveness, and so i anchor
myself and begin to dream.

i dream of fire, of heat so blazing i was
born again; of what you pray for
when you’re falling.

i dream of where the land was
hollowed out into nothing; of the
impacts that came before me.

i dream of sols when i was lost, or trapped,
or could not remember myself. i dream of
someone who reached through

the years to always bring me back. i
dream of places only my shadow has
touched. of waking up to the

kiss of sunlight. and i dream of
loss. of looking backward. of the
hush that comes when you become

alone. i dream of miles behind me and
one-way trips and of gypsum glinting
through rust-rose dust. i dream

wonder and discovery and of
doing what’s impossible; of the grace
of beautiful and proud desolation.

sometimes in my dreams i hear
music playing. it sounds muffled, like
a phonograph underwater, or a melody

caught in static. beneath the
music, i hear voices. the louder i
try to answer them, the softer

they get. a calm settles. i dream
of cornflower sunsets. i dream of
light coming again

 


READ MORE

The Mars rover Opportunity is dead. Here’s what it gave humanity. [National Geographic]
Recovery Commands [Poets Reading the News]


Catherine Strayhall is a nerdfighter from Kansas City and a Kansas State University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Literature and Creative Writing. She is a two-time winner of the annual Sullivan Poetry Award at K-State, and her work has appeared in The Kansas City Star, elementia, and on the website of Sigma Tau Delta, the International English Honor Society. In 2017 she created a project called “Mobile Poetry” on Facebook which features a Google Map of location-based poetry around Manhattan, Kansas. 

Image is the final photo taken by Opportunity, courtesy of NASA.

Previous Story

The Shoes Wanted to Speak

Next Story

God Bless The Child

Latest from Science & Tech

Pluto’s Moons

By Lenore Balliro. Pluto's moons tumble into a chaos while Earth does what it can to keep its rhythm.

Big Picture

By Alyx McCoy. Why isn’t bodycam surveillance putting an end to police violence?
Go toTop