World Poetry Day 2023

This poem is dedicated to my recent findings of novel microbial species from a brine prepared from natural magnesium sulfate crystals, which is chemically similar to the sulfate-rich brines of early Mars.

 

You can listen to it here

 

A “NOVEL” Story of Life in Salt 

 

In a soft and salty embrace 

You were hiding 

In oblivion 

But deep down 

wanting to be found 

and known 

Who knows 

if you found me 

or I found you 

But YOU tiny life 

Destined to be known 

It’s a story of your survival 

And a redefinition 

of my work 

as you came 

and changed 

the whole course of it 

I gave you a microcosm 

Stressed 

And depressed 

Like a bygone Mars? 

Like I was searching for you 

You grew 

Not one 

Not two 

But three of you 

And science 

will come to know you 

With a name and a personality 

For the very first time 

In its entire lifetime 

Your existence 

Evolving in pigments 

Yellows and whites 

And reds 

You love all 

whether its sodium chloride 

or epsomite 

and that makes you bright 

and you can also hide 

for an indefinite time? 

because spores you got 

and your genes say a lot 

about your dormant plot 

and the ancient style of sustenance of you all 

As much salty is planet Mars 

As apt you are 

To have flowed in the brines of early Mars? 

So yes 

a lot 

is yet to be thought 

But YOU 

Will always be the offspring of AstrobiologyOU 

And 

You are mine 

For eternity 

 

                                                                                       ~ Anushree Srivastava