Down Under

Isidra made notes
of every step

she had taken
to access the chamber,

her boss, Eulogio “Chuniar” Luna, Jr.
was a stickler for protocol.

Facts were not facts
until he said they were facts.

Isidra often thought
the son of a bitch

made his mother
provide proof she was his mother.

The Martian’s skin still looked good
considering it was at least

a hundred thousand years old.
She tapped notes

on her Lalo5.
A Lalo5 is a ring-size computer,

they come in all colors.
Isidra’s was brown, of course,

as any proud New Martian
would insist upon.

Once she was back
on the surface,

she looked up at the sky
to see Deimos and Phobos

scatter into the night
like fireflies.

Yes,a large number of New Martians
are descendants of the Arizona Mexicans
who were rounded up and sent to the
penal colony that once made up Mars.