JEM, a limerick:

There once was a planet named Jem,
Which seemed to accommodate men,
With Earth torn asunder,
By one nuclear blunder,
Humankind thought to try it again.

JEM, a haiku:

Dim red sun overhead,
Sad beasts of the sky and earth.
Humans, welcome home.

JEM, a sonnet:

In the air float sentient balloons,
Not unlike a wet dream of Carl Sagan’s;
The mist blocks out the sight of the moons,
no God, all of us have turned pagan.

Sun flares, no day, no sign from home, alone,
In night, our small outpost, its cries fall mute
upon the sour and acrid hives of bone
and carapace and guns and combat boots.

Hopes were set forth for a crimson utopia.
Arrived on Jem we saw ourselves turn cruel,
our love for war became myopia.
What comedy to name this place a jewel.

Adventures of men will end in disaster,
in space, repeat chorus: to death, our old master.

NEXT BOOK: KAREL CAPEK, WAR WITH THE NEWTS