Face In The Sand

Tell us quiet neighbor

what secrets you hold

beneath those dunes of red

only water and bacteria?

millennia ago fossilized

as some theorize

or something much more profound?

What if one day

those stone lips could move?

part to reveal an intelligent tongue

what wisdom...or warning

would you whisper

into your noisy neighbor’s ear?

Dare we imagine what cipher

you might reveal to us?

to be painstakingly unraveled

as the hieroglyphics once were

one of clicks and beeps?

or phonetic foundation

to our own tongues?

But for now

apart from Hubble…automated Rover

of whose photos speak less

than a thousand words  

you remain a forbidden planet

just beyond reach to the foot of man

And when we do finally arrive

to leave our imprint

as on the moon a century ago

will we find your eyes…nose…and mouth

to be nothing more

than a geological anomaly?

or a lone sphinx like icon

of a world gone wrong?

Its temples…places of business

forever slipped beneath

those dunes of red?

citizens relocated to a nearby world

to combine DNA as missing link

to a new home and hope

for intelligent design? 

© 2006  Chris Sorrenti