all went smoothly as our spacecraft made touchdown

 

the night was bleeding

 

distant hills etched in mystery

 

Gregory went first

then Maitland

and I watched them lumbering

 

heard the thin pleading note of voices

through the helmet

"wow, just like I thought it would be!"

"Sure is, same thought as mine!"

 

Mars unblinked, its channels escaping.

 

The colony would take time to establish.

 

In their spacesuits Gregory and Maitland

looked ridiculous but then

they put the flags up

the stars and the stripes

and all seemed right with the world.