Rocket Science

By Clara Blair

Here we come, ol' Wild Blue Yonder.
Watch out for us, we're the human race.
We've crawled out of the oceans
And climbed down from the trees,
But we're still looking for our
Proper place.

Restless, we pursue perfection.
Wouldn't know it if it smacked us in the face.
We can find the price of progress,
Always have. The trouble is,
We can't remember how to
Feel disgrace.

We're all in this together,
Until someone spoils the party
By pointing out that our perspective's screwed.
But they're the weak, the traitors.
They don't see the bigger picture,
Just the waste.

Go to a public hospital - a nursing home will do.
We don't call them debtors' prisons anymore.
Ask to see the ones whose families
Cannot help them at the end, who left their lives
Behind them at the door. Unless you're wealthy,
Old age is a curse.

It's a game of smoke and mirrors,
This progress that we've made - a lie too big
To ever be untold. We've invented institutions
That feed on the ones they're made for,
Knowing at day's end that
No one's won.

Yes, we're a fine example
Of Nature gone unchecked.
What God would take the blame
For what we've become?
Watch out for us - we are
The human race.

© 2003 Clara Blair