Dead Planet XLV

Night Visitor
—for Shikō Munakata

He’s surely not here—
He never was or will be…
Just a woodblock dream.

Shikō dreamed him up—
He’s just a strange Jomōn Man
Knocking at my door.

A night visitor—
Gone when I open the door
But the knock is real.

Mars is full of ghosts—
The landscape strewn with debris
Gears, clocks, skeletons.

There’s nothing much left—
Except for the sands of Mars
The cold stars above.

The expeditions—
Top secret to find out things
Why catastrophe?

Like the Lunar base—
On the dark side of the Moon
Lots of Nitrogen.

The Mars colony—
Led by Miss Eisenhower
Generalissimo.

And all the other—
Remote viewing personnel
Found out lots of things.

Delving back in time—
Zeitvernichtung technical
Archeologists.

Deimos & Phobos—
Ancient satellite drones
Monitoring Mars.

The deeper they got—
The double labyrinth grew
Translation of Texts.

Martian archives—
Were syntactically sealed
Krell mind-boost needed.

The old pyramids—
Aligned perfectly with Earth
Edo exacto.

Scifaiku mind-set—
Opened up the vast bank-vaults
Deep secrets inside.

The samurai class—
With laser-swords & haiku
Were used to such things.

And so the Space Force—
Did the same thing as Japan
Bashō back again.

Shikō Munakata, Night Visit (1938)