Let Us Land On Mars

Let us land on Mars
With robots

Let the robots unpack building materials
And assemble them into habitats

Let the robots construct vast pressurized greenhouses
And seed and water and fertilize the soil

Let the inanimate machines germinate life
And plant crops and tend fields

Let the robots be our farmers at a distance
And our miners and smelters and let them build factories

Let us populate Mars with robots
Who can build other robots to tend this garden

Let us leave them to it
Let us, ourselves, never land on Mars

Ottawa, 2020