a galactic canyon. Copyright by me.
The ‘I’ in the poem is the generation ship’s pilot.
The rest is humanity’s refrain.
( Note: there is no actual music playing. Think of it as music floating down the hallway, from another room, as you read this. )
[ background music: ‘Learning to Fly’ by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. ]
looking across the deep canyon,
I’ve never flown before,
across a divide so wide.
No clouds below,
no clouds above,
no air either.
Over yonder,
a large number of stars,
its the next arm,
of this spiral galaxy,
its really,
faaaar away.
Oh, we humans are learning to fly,
across the galaxy wide,
the rocks back home,
have started to melt,
we have to flee,
land fall,
so distant,
so far away !
[ bottle neck blues bit in here ]
So, here we go,
our Sun,
has gone into Red Giant phase,
no nearby places to call Home.
So we start again,
here we go !
Learnin’ to fly !
[ fade out into the distance… ]
[ exeunt ]