Last Ship Out

I am looking down at my home planet
One last time
Staring out at rivulets of fire
Blazing through the smoke
The last light of the last city
Burned out yesterday

I can barely see the forms of the continents
We tore the skin of the Earth
From her body to build our last escape
They tell you that in the void
No-one can hear you scream
But as the engines hum to life
I hear her dying.
She does not go gentle into that good night
She writhes on the hospital bed
Her infant is her surgeon
She is her own scalpel
We are the hands that took that rusty edge
And carved ourselves away

We will be the last Ark to leave
The trailing edge of this pod of armoured Sky-Whales
And we are singing all the songs we know
Of loss and goodbye
You can’t see another human being
This far away
But they’re there
The ones we couldn’t take
The ones we wouldn’t take
The ones who wouldn’t go
And the ones who said they couldn’t.
I know they’re down there
Hands clutched tight
Tears falling even though
They haven’t the water to waste
Bodies pressing against the spasming Earth

The philosopher inside me
Envies them
When all hope runs out
And there is but a single end
Only the bright spark of humanity can remain
That thrumming pulse
Running through every vein
In that planet below
There is no fear
Or worry or heartbreak
Or loss left on the world
Only peace
The philosopher inside me envies them.

But I am human.
More animal than rational
I ran to the refuge in the skies like the rest
I stood by
As we gave up on our planet
And tore what we could from her
So we could escape the damage we had already done.

The engine changes note
And I have seconds left before the jump.
These are words I have said
To far too many people far too many times
But my dear home planet
These words belong to you now.
“Goodbye. I love you.”

Author's Note

All constructive criticism welcome, this is intended as a spoken word piece