Out here in the black of space
One cannot hear a sound
But the gentle whirring of machines
And the crew doing its rounds.
The greater number sleep, to wake
When we have reached our end:
A world on the edge of a galaxy
Too vast to comprehend.
In the year of ’96
Nuclear missiles scorched the sky,
And we watched in abject terror
As all life on our planet died.
We had ascended through the atmosphere
Only a week before –
A beacon of human unity
And a world that knew no war.
We put our trust in cold machines
To manage our daily lives,
But the program was not what it seemed,
And decreed that we should die.
Our starship held the best of Man.
Men and women from many lands,
Were to join to found a colony
On the galaxy’s outer band.
Our planet gone, all we had left
Was the task to found a nation,
So we dried our tears and set a course
For our new destination.
The Earth is now a barren rock
Where scarce a river runs,
But we will journey, far and wide
To other Earths, and other Suns.
Excellent poem.