An isosceles triangle was the same on Earth or Mars. from Issue 88
“An isosceles triangle was the same on Earth or Mars.”
– Henry Kuttner
Millennia later, tendriled archaeologists from another galaxy
land on Earth—an arid, pitted place but with
the skeletons of some early race of bipeds. One
configuration is common; it was there on Mars as well,
and on the planet of genius leeches in their murky broth,
and the planet of sentient airborne puffs,
and the planet of living metal. Two of the skeletons
are buried (here they “buried” the dead) together,
side by side, with the arm bones touching as if death
were a form of elision, and the leg bones touching as if
there existed an intimacy that lasted into the grave.
And yet one cranium is turned to face a skeleton buried
yards away: “the longing” is how they describe it in their notes.
They have found this triangle on every world they’ve visited.