WE'RE NOT GOING TO MARS by James Lilliefors

We’re not going to Mars, we’ve decided, we’re staying here. 

We’re going to stick it out with the 8.7 million species 

who live on Earth rather than schlep our stuff to a planet 

with 0.0 species, and an average temperature of 81 degrees below zero. 

We’ll take our 332 cubic miles of oceans, rivers, and lakes 

over a planet with 0.0 gallons of visible water and the most dreadful 

real estate in the galaxy: rocky, dust-covered desert, canyons

and craters in all directions, and terrible dust storms that blanket 

the planet. No sea breeze, no forest drizzle. No oxygen to speak of. 

The mental health issues, we imagine, will be off the charts. 

Of course, we’ve all heard the talk – of a “space-faring civilization,” 

a “multi-planetary” society; about the need for survival options, 

in case Earth succumbs to “self-annihilation,” as the world’s richest man says. 

He wants to colonize Mars with a million people in 20 years. But, really, 

what’s the rush? And where would he get the million people? 

If we went to Mars, we’d need to start from scratch – oxygen, gravity, climate, 

crop production. All things we already have here. In fact, you could 

almost say this planet was made for us. That’s why we’ve decided – 

and we’re not changing our minds, even if you paid us a million dollars – 

that we’re not going to Mars. We’re going to stay right here on Earth 

and vote for people who’ll work to fix our Earthly problems. 

Which isn’t to say we oppose space exploration. We don’t. But we’d rather 

pursue technologies to prevent “self-annihilation” than plan for what to do 

after we annihilate. Call us crazy, but we’ve decided we belong here. 

Which is why, if you asked us to choose, we’d give up on Elon 

before we gave up on Earth. Although we’d do it with tact and empathy, 

in a civilized way befitting our home planet, wishing him a long 

and prosperous voyage to Mars.

James Lilliefors is a poet, journalist, and novelist, whose writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Door Is A Jar, The Washington Post, Salvation South, Anti-Heroin Chic, the Belfast Review, and elsewhere. He is a former writing fellow at the University of Virginia. His first poetry collection, SUDDEN SHADOWS, is published by Finishing Line Press.