Objects Outlive Us

I incline myself to space

There was no ghost on the moor

No open window

No monkey's paw

There in the mist

You asked me, "Did you forget I exist?"

I said, "Yes"

But you played too hard to get

The Buddha of the modern age

Is barely paid minimum wage

To dole out truth and healthy karma

The same he gave to our forefathers

When once we reached to touch the sky

Now we have no need to try

The blurred photos of ghosts of men

Such permanence, we don't comprehend

Slaughter the sacred cow

To stuff our stupid mouths

Already fit to burst

Still the insatiable thirst

To kill over and over

We interlopers, the inferior species

Wallow in our own faeces

Gazing down at our navels

And no longer able

To find some kind of perspective

Amongst all the invective glory

In pathways of dopamine

Until time intervenes

Rabble struck dumb

Dementia or overcome

Stampeding

But we have no need to try

Her shopping bag broke sending eggs and flour crashing

Down to the ground, just like star clusters smashing

But, no one will give her a glance

They just shuffle on home in a trance

The tiniest lives fill their hives up with worry

To make it to church, well, she'll need to hurry

When late, she will bow down contrite

While a meteor turns out the light

And there, in an ordinary street

A car isn't where it would normally be

The driver in tears, 'bout his payment arrears

Still, nobody hears when a sun disappears

In a galaxy afar

First day of the new job, and he was so nervous

The suit and the platitude, "Can I be of service?"

His boss made him clean all the cars

While he wondered, "Is there life on Mars?"

And meanwhile, the stars line themselves up in order

While we bicker on with our fences and borders

But best not to think about that

It's better to live without facts

And now in her old wedding bed

A lady will dream that her husband is dead

Of course he's alive, he'll be home around five

Still, silence arrives, when a nebula dives

Into our Milky Way

The thunder and rain start, the paving stones melt

And oddly the first spots make Orion's belt

As you queue at the bank for an hour

'Cause a solar flare blew out the power

The nurse in the care home now empties a bath tub

The water will spiral, a galaxy's vast hub

Is draining away as we speak

But she loses her job there next week

And there with his first telescope

A teenager stands full of hormones and hope (A teenager stands full of hormones and hope)

As he squints at the night, like a painting of light

He doesn't suppose that a black hole implodes

In a trillion tears from now (Ah)

Back then, in time, we spoke, up for, the Earth

The truth, the proof, but in, our hearts, the words

We used, were not, to break, or kill, this spell

Only, to warn, to track, the dark, that fell

And now, here we, be the, few that, survive

The ones, who knew, look back, in our, hindsight

Knowing, always, there would, should be, an end

Knowing, it was, just a, question, of when

Each of, these souls, just one, in a billion

Each of, the stars, just one, in a trillion

We move, on through, so dead, so black, the void

And still, back there, in dust, the Earth, destroyed

Back then, in time, we spoke, up for, the Earth

The truth, the proof, but in, our hearts, the words

We used, were not, to break, or kill, this spell

Only, to warn, to track, the dark, that fell

And now, here we, be the, few that, survive

The ones, who knew, look back, in our, hindsight

Knowing, always, there would, should be, an end

Knowing, it was, just a, question, of when

Each of, these souls, just one, in a billion

Each of, the stars, just one, in a trillion

We move, on through, so dead, so black, the void

And still, back there, in dust, the Earth, destroyed

I incline myself to space

There was no ghost on the moor

No open window

No monkey's paw

There in the mist, you asked me

"Did you forget I exist?"

I said, "Yes"

'Cause you played too hard to get