Everyone in the galaxy still knows the name

of the colony leader with a heart full of hate,

who destroyed what was then humanity’s best

hope for a future somewhere among the stars.

 

Of course, monsters are never forgotten, are they?

They’re whispered about - or worse. They always

ask me, the only living survivor of Orion Colony,

about him. What was he like? When did I know?

 

I tell them instead about you (not your death —

enough has been said on that sorry subject already,

and you’re more than your death). I tell them how

vibrantly you lived: your hope, your research, your joy.

 

When they speak of the doomed Orion Colony,

I demand they remember your name.