Mercury sings like a crystal goblet

'The planet Mercury sings like a crystal goblet.

One side of Mercury faces the Sun. That side has always faced the Sun. That side is a sea of white-hot dust.

The other side faces the nothingness of space eternal. That side has always faced the nothingness of space eternal. That side is a forest of giant blue-white crystals, aching cold.

It is the tension between the hot hemisphere of day-without-end and the cold hemisphere of night-without-end that makes Mercury sing.'

'Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, from The Sirens of Titan, 1959.