The Lorelei Signal

Orion Colony
Written by Jenny Thompson / Artwork by Marge Simon

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.




Jenny Thompson is an IT analyst based in Pittsburgh. Her poetry has been published in Strange Horizons, Star*Line, and the anthology Post ROE Alternatives: Fighting Back.