Chocolate

Martin Zarrop

It’s five years since the last delivery
of nuclear fuel, essential metals
we can’t mine, dark chocolate bars
reminding us of home.

The data came to us in holograms
across an airless sea, telling
of the latest viral curse, of infertility
and chaos, martial law.

We’re on our own.
It’s three years since the last goodbye,
the vaccine failures, messages of love
then suddenly – no reason – silence.

We cultivate our gardens, ration air,
grow seed potatoes, culture meat,
pray the projector doesn’t fail
while cheering The Martian’s safe return.

Last month we climbed Olympus Mons
but dream of Earthrise, egg on toast,
before another mess of spuds.
We miss the chocolate most.

The Science

The poem is concerned with the failure of mankind to maintain its social structures (or even its existence) in the face of a possible future natural disaster. It considers a pandemic affecting fertility and worse (unspecified) and its impact on an outlying community (on Mars). Can it survive alone?

The Poet

Martin Zarrop is a retired mathematician. He started writing poetry in 2006. He completed a MA in Creative Writing at Manchester University in 2011. His pamphlet No Theory of Everything (2015) was a winner of the 2014 Cinnamon Press pamphlet competition and his first full collection Moving Pictures was published by Cinnamon in 2016. His pamphlet Making Waves on the life and science of Albert Einstein was published by V.Press in 2019. His second collection Is Anyone There? was published by High Window Press in 2020.

Next poem: Community by Teddy G. Goetz