Deirdre Lockwood

Letter to Martian

There is a substance we cannot live without
that for a moment gets lighter as it gets colder.
Because of this creatures can live beneath it in winter. 

People tell more truth the farther they get
from home. This is why we long to travel. 

The substance surrounds us in many forms
and keeps us strange to one another. We fear it
though we float on it. 

When other creatures speak to us
we cannot understand, but we love them 

and kill them and praise their bravery in war.
Many wait in the street for summer
and when it comes it is too hot. 

We cannot shake the feeling someone
is responsible, though we have no evidence. 

In case you could hear music
we send it soaring away from us.
We search for water.

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Deirdre Lockwood’s debut collection, An Introduction to Error, is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press in September 2025. Her work has appeared in Threepenny Review, Yale Review, Poetry Northwest and elsewhere.