Before our children pay the cost
and everyone we love is lost,
I have a tale to tell to you
which is important, grave and true.
   I’ve known it since I was a tot.
   I don’t think I have lost the plot.
  
Somewhere another humankind
(unlike our failed experiment),
born from the dust it left behind,
lives in perpetual merriment,
   working towards a worthy end,
   richer than desire can spend.

Yes, they had their moments too;
their “one small step”, their “giant leap”,
but unlike us, they followed through,
flocked and followed (not like sheep)
   high to the sunlit uplands where,
   though eagles die, yet brave men dare.

Between our neighbour stars they stride.
The sky is not the limit there.
Horizons high, profound and wide
inspire the spirit everywhere.
   Their mother planet slows and tires
   but they’ll live on when she expires.

Search every star that may be seen
with naked or assisted eye –
they may be there or may have been
and gone to other sweeps of sky.
   One thing is certain – I insist! –
   somewhere they really do exist.

Meanwhile in Tunbridge Wells or Cheam,
rockets rise into Autumn’s night
and like a timid lover’s dream
burst into dying drops of light.
   A man’s or nation’s death or birth
   are all we celebrate on Earth.

Woe to the nerd, the one that saves
the world and all our children’s lives!
Although he for salvation slaves,
let us make sure he never thrives.
   The world will surely end in tears
   but not for many, many years.

In all the cosmos there will be,
of man-made objects left, but one:
a spacecraft, representing me
and you and all men ’neath the sun,
   floating to races humanoid
   far, far away across the void.

So, one day, many years ahead,
Bach will be heard in places where
no one will know the race is dead
that loved and sent his music there
   with Morse Code, whalesong, wind and thunder
   What will they make of that, I wonder.

And on another day, perhaps,
a million million aeons hence,
our waves will have traversed the gaps
to reach by chance or providence,
   the eyes of other races who
   will learn from all our errors too.
  
Thus our extinction won’t have been
in vain, for wiser worlds will learn
what their existence has to mean.
Their tide, if ebbing, then will turn,
   break the surly bonds and rise
   into the safety of their skies.

Good for them! O, if I knew
these happy folks, these souls-to-be,
I’m certain I would love them too
and fancy they would suffer me
   and my sad tale of humankind
   who died with wakeful eyes and blind.

A failed experiment of clay,
we loved our kids but were not fond
of riches that we knew would pay
for their tomorrows and beyond.
   We loved our kids but would not give
   enough to let their children live.

Instead, we lived a local lot,
of global issues made no fuss,
except when we complained of what
our countries could not do for us.
   We waited for our leaders, who
   had no idea what to do!

They thought that time was on our side,
that Earth would keep us safe from harm,
that asteroids would not collide,
that I was from the funny-farm!
   And though the threat was widely known,
   they disregarded Yellowstone.

And one day, she exhaled her breath,
her pregnant caldera gave birth,
and too soon what was born gave death
and choked all life on all the Earth.
   WE COULD HAVE LIVED! In other words,
   we could have listened to the nerds.

This tale I have no wish to tell,
yet is true. It is not wrong.
And if we do not start to dwell
above the sky, it won’t be long
   before our children pay the cost
   and everyone we love is lost.