Planet Labs Satellite
On distance, decisions, and disasters
What is visible from space
depends mainly on your
distance. Mostly the answers
are boring: highways,
dams, cities, the expected
Pyramids. They are boring until
they are cataclysmal: Bloodbath
smears Sudan’s sands scarlet. Gaza,
grief observable in the thermosphere.
Trump muzzles those of us
over Iran. What is visible
from space? Your structures
and destruction. Your worship
of Ahura Mazda and Ahriman.
I’ve been silenced but I still witness
everything.
In the old Zoroastrian religion, Ahura Mazda is the main (good) deity and sky god, the name—best linguists can trace—meaning something like ‘wise begetter.’ Ahriman, also known by Angra Mainyu and other names, is the destructive spirit that opposes creation and the good.
This poem is based on the news from last week that the current administration has ordered US-owned satellites not to share images of West Asia, especially Iran, with anyone other than the government. Articles on it can be found here and here. The news from Sudan is from November 2025, while that of G@za is ongoing.
Times are bleak, friends. Yet unlike the satellites, we have not been silenced. Let’s hold each other close and write poetry in the ruins. What are you doing to get through?