The Grand Canyon of Mars

With ideas and devices,
As with lives and life, it is

The survival of the first
Arrival that sets the course

For all the downstream carving
And canyoning that follows.

To devise is to divide;
To divide is to devise.

If your history began
With divinations, expect

To discern oracular
Glosses for all your changes.

Cosmogonic falls from grace
Score every rising massif

With tumbling myths of descent.
Start by sketching in the dust,

A geometric cosmos
Ends up etched in silica.

Start with a hothouse, become
A luscious blue marble world.

Start with a dream of escape;
End with a cracked, vacant face.