Figure C22 ERIDANIA

Now in the present day, in a high room

As cold as ice with walls as red as rust,

With tapestries wove by no earthly loom

Depicting scenes of pageantry and lust,

Carnage and high adventure. But we must

Draw them aside, and fantasy’s surcease

We trade for an utopia of dust

On which romance shall not extend its lease:

The planet named for WAR, eternally at peace.