Lost Martians

I looked behind the dryer
where socks, mittens, and dust bunnies
crouch in shadows and lint.
I looked inside the closets.
I looked under the bed
where I’ve found mp3 players,
earplugs, and bad dreams. I took a ladder outside
and looked into the treetops,
nests, and my neighbor’s chimney.
I looked in bottles of screws,
dried paint cans, anti-freeze.
I looked in the mailbox.
I looked under car seats.
I looked between the towels
and the sci-fi books.
I looked inside the fridge.
I looked from the windows.
I looked through a telescope
at Mars and thought, No—
dry red planet, radiation,
too cold for life, not there.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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Laura Madeline Wiseman is the author of American Galactic (Martian Lit, 2014), Queen of the Platform (Anaphora Literary Press, 2013), Sprung (San Francisco Bay Press, 2012), and the collaborative book Intimates and Fools (Les Femmes Folles Books, 2014) with artist Sally Deskins, as well as two letterpress books, and eight chapbooks, including Spindrift (Dancing Girl Press, 2014). She is the editor of Women Write Resistance: Poets Resist Gender Violence (Hyacinth Girl Press, 2013). Wiseman has a doctorate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She has received an Academy of American Poets Award, the Wurlitzer Foundation Fellowship, and her work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Margie, and Feminist Studies. www.lauramadelinewiseman.com

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