Five Haiku
by Geoffrey A. Landis
Winter
Interstellar planet
ice glistens in star-lit dark:
Does it dream of spring?
Spring
Hydrogen ions
chirp and twitter microwaves
making nests: the stars
Summer
Swelling blue-white star
outshines the bright galaxy
spraying iron, salt: us
Fall
Hoard scant hydrogen
Against the final darkness:
Stars, like leaves, turn red
Winter
Iron cinders of stars
cool in expanding darkness:
too late for regrets
Copyright © 1993, Geoffrey A. Landis
NGC 604
Star-birth Region in Spiral Galaxy M33
By day Geoffrey A. Landis is a mild-mannered inventor and rocket scientist. In his spare time, he's a science fiction writer, the author of some seventy short stories and two books, Mars Crossing and Impact Parameter. He was a member of the Mars Pathfinder science team, and is now on the science team for the Mars Exploration Rover missions Spirit and Opportunity. More information can be found on his web site.