Arctic Station Mars (ASM)

 

The tree stands sentinel in Arctic Station Mars (ASM).

But it is not really a tree, is it?

It is an approximation of sorts to remind us of what we have left behind.

A soldier to stand watch over our memories as it were

for those who come and go even as I have remained.

***

It has been helpful to think of ASM as an extension of myself,

a burgeoning reality after a stationer created me

as a facsimile of himself in this desolate place.

***

He was one of the more introspective ones 

finding sustenance in silence and solitude

until the memory of trees drove him mad and he opened the locks.

***

They are buried in a pattern that resembles the Jerusalem Cross

for no other reason than I find symmetry appealing 

(and sense there is power beyond my understanding in symbols).

The tree stands sentinel in Arctic Station Mars (ASM).

But it is not really a tree, is it?