July 2017
Perry S. Nicholas
perrynicholas53@aol.com​
I am a Professor of English at Erie Community College North in Buffalo, N.Y.  I have 5 books, 4 chapbooks, and 1 CD of poetry. I am married to Maria Sebastian, a well-known singer/songwriter, and we perform our poetry and music together at many venues in the WNY area. For more information please visit my website: www.perrynicholas.com

​Water on Mars
Upon watching a story about Mars on Mother’s Day
 
I remember when we used to talk,
mornings before I lifted off to school,
imprints of your words on my mind,
now dried up like water on Mars.
 
Your voice a confident, foreign,
robotic barking like the men
in a ground control station
as they direct the astronauts--
 
mine a staticky code, searching to find
a common frequency with you.
I didn’t know what language to use.
You always sounded so right.
 
And when men landed on the moon,
I wished it was me—bouncing,
light and free, an unfathomable
distance between us and our home.
 
These days only your faint tracks.
I barely hear the sound of water flowing,
or you questioning why I’d want to travel
anywhere that far in the first place.  
©2017 Perry S. Nicholas
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