Seeing Red, Seeing Green

The red planet swirls with dust,
Angry winds circle the dead cone
Of Olympus Mons.
Frozen crystals of ice nest under the sand
With minerals showing a history of water.
Microbe thoughts conjecture life once,
Maybe not green, maybe not more
Than glistening slime.
Relics of these ancient neighbors
Remain hidden, despite our probes.

The past is replaced by hope
That solar winds shall carry gardens
Transported in Earth-built barges
To occupy this abandoned house
And that ancient channels will once more
Flow through ecological corridors
Where our bipedal mammalian descendants
Walk across horizons reborn.