Lord of the Flies on Mars

by Helen Bar-Lev

Everyone’s signing up

Everyone’s lining up

to travel to the stars

to colonize Mars

An adventure for the restless

a diversion for the bored

Pay twenty-thousand dollars

to reach your new home

to be enclosed in a dome

piped in oxygen

temperatures guaranteed pleasant

a pill for nourishment

Until some pervert

goes berserk

slits some throats

chops off a few heads

hijacks a space ship

escapes back to Earth

Which in the interim

has become too violent

too much pollution to breathe

and in addition, news of his deeds

have preceded him

he’s a wanted man

He tries to leave

to Venus, perhaps Saturn

but, oh what a fool,

his spaceship

has run out

of fuel

* * * * *

© 4.2016 Helen Bar-Lev

Helen Bar-Lev was born in New York in 1942. www.helenbarlev.com  She holds a B.A. in Anthropology, has lived in Israel for 46 years and has had over 90 exhibitions of her landscape paintings, 34 of which were one-woman shows. Her poems and artwork have appeared in numerous online and print anthologies. Six poetry collections, all illustrated by Helen. She is the Amy Kitchener senior poet laureate. Helen was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2013 and is the recipient of the Homer European Medal for Poetry and Art. Helen is Assistant to the President of Voices Israel. She lives in Metulla, Israel.