Overnight Mars will become the playground of the solar system...
                      --LIFE, May '91

Our choices are endless. Take, for instance,
Mars--
              Long burned-out
beach without an ocean where
light gravity invites tall leaps
past canyons, over cliffs--And that's just
fine, you think as you soar toward
the midpoint of your arc and peer out
from your pressure-suit as you imagine
owning a world bereft
of waterfalls and rivers, a world where
red dust glitters down
from glazed plateaus...

Yes, it's beautiful, you think--
The station's slanting into sight; you know now
that you'll soon be home, you'll let
your loved one knead your shoulders
while the lava geysers rise in white-gold
bursts on the horizon, vast drills
tearing through the dried crust, spiralling
downward to the core--Yes, we could
surely have it all--you steady your boots
on your descent, knowing well
when nightfall comes, you'll land
and hurry back to base before
the temperature-fall freeze-dries you--
pink dust swirls up toward the stars--
                                              And in
the shadow of boiling vats, you touch down
on the pitted landscape, quarry scars
and tire tracks, glancing once more
at the horizon--There,
where once a blue gem floated,
and our need was merciless--Yes, there--

where one red speck still cuts
across the sky.

            -from Ned Balbo,Galileo's Banquet (Washington Writers' Publishing House: 1998).