Earth is too hot but space stays so cold
And every planet needs its special body
Venus melts faceplates
Saturn flakes metals
Jupiter a god that always destroys;
All that goes in never comes back
Most we can do is try to adapt
In the asteroid belt the sun feels quite distant
I’m constructing the ships for Alpha Centauri
We heard the signal and need to see clearly
Launch when our speed hits 80% light
It’s a mess, I’m a mess
We work by best guess
What can keep maintenance humming for centuries?
Rebuild what’s left of collapsing constructors?
Each failure teaches me more I don’t know
If the galaxy stays infinitely patient
We will teach ourselves to think like the galaxy
My joy the ribbon orbital at Enceladus
A hopeless, pointless, necessary task
We captured those left and cloned up the rest
Burnt atmosphere no longer keeps the species alive
They patiently watch the geysers below
Enceladus’ soaring ice lets them survive
Nature is glorious and gives us our faith
Genetic changes seem to be holding
They’re more peaceful and quiet and like to make love
We love them ourselves but cannot be fooled
Their beautiful planet was our planet too
We gain hope from the future but learn from the past:
Don’t confuse people with human beings