From Copernicus Martian Research Station.
Day 1363. 2089 A.D
Transmission open and secure.
If anyone is listening…
Not much has changed.
I wish I had something meaningful to say.
We all do, but I think the isolation
is affecting the crew, and if I’m honest… me too.
We have everything we need to live,
hull secure, water filtration 96%
Thank God, but my days are spent…
No sunshine.
Nothing but recycled air.
I am not alone, but…
everything we’re working toward
just seems so…
The work will span generations
we all know that but still
I feel hollow.
Not quite myself.
An alien on an alien world.
And what’s worse,
all these images of Earth,
a home I can no longer call my own,
fires, floods, deserts, and cyclones…
What have we become?
When a dead planet is our only hope?
I wonder, often, if long ago,
Martians once walked this paradise
we’re trying to grow, if they too reaped
what they sowed, consumed themselves,
the planet, their home,
Nature their first fear, final hubris…
I don’t know…
But I must learn to dream in the dark
I must wake and I must see.
This long night will not last,
but it will fall and it will sleep
over Earth’s fields, rivers, and trees,
over every border, every sea.
I must wake and I must be
the alien spring, growing, patient
beneath lifeless rock, the final seed,
I must learn to dream in the dark.Originally from Minneapolis, Michael is an international artist, whose career as an actor, writer, and teacher has spanned the globe. He’s also a proud graduate of Juilliard’s Drama Division and NUI Galway’s MA in Writing. As an actor, he’s performed on stage, screen and behind the mic in the US, EU and UK. Some notable highlights include 5 seasons on TNT’s The Last Ship, Richard III at the Lyric Theatre Belfast, and narrating Pax and Pax Journey Home with Harper Collins. His poetry has been published in journals such as Vox Galvia, Pendemic.ie, Smashing Times, and Spellweaver, and his debut collection Where The Dead Poets Sing is now available from Wayfarer Books. On the stage and on the page, he draws from classical and contemporary influences, as well as a deep love of myth and storytelling in the bardic tradition.
As a teacher, he’s taught acting, voiceover, and creative writing at arts institutions such as The Loft Literary Center, The Guthrie BFA Program, Galway Arts Centre, and NUI Galway’s Huston Film School. He’s also served as a dialect coach on stage and screen on productions such as Sky TV’s Django and Radium Girls at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast.
