Spirit of Mars

A long way off in space lies Mars

The spirit of the caves spoke:

Who is that with the eyes of gold shining down her face?

The Sun said - 

It is I, Sun Queen, don't you know it is to me you owe your grace

The Spirit cried:

 no, for millions of years you've dried and scorched this place!

The Sun said: 

no my dear, it was the doing of your Martian race.

They tried to build ladders up to the sky, 

They reached beyond their reach

And from that pride they would surely die

It was as the Martian prophets preached

To try to touch heaven is a mark of pride

So many have done it failed and died

But what they missed in the offing was

To hold on tight to their cherished land

The spirit of the cave looked sad,

How can this be, that they never knew what they had?

Tried to stretch when they should have stayed still

Tried to fetch the impossible will

What destiny has taught them

Is to remain where water still runs in rills

The chorus of the Martian sand dunes

Then all sang in choir:

Oh what has happened to our promised land?

Oh look what has befallen us!

Take heed ye giants and heroes of other planets

Not to follow the example set by us

The water spirits who once lived on Mars are now sleeping in the sand

Take heed, take heed they sing anon in their water lost song

Water water nowhere,and not a drop to drink

The ice fox and polar bear, are unbearably white in ink

The turtle and the whale who once swam our seas

Are lost in the sands of time

Rolled under the rug of memory

And folds of slime and unbegotten mud layer the deep Martian plain

Like an ocean these desert dunes roll on

Swept by the red winds of a planet's pain

Blood red in autopsy of the crime

The all seeing moon Phoebus sings:

My eyes are filled with red, from the blood planet's suffering

I lost my rings, have you found them?

I lost my wedding bells

They lie broken in the sandy ground

No more do their joyous songs sound

I saw destruction from my cold height

But I was hot with rage

Oh these Martians caused the onset

Of the next ice age

How when they had plundered the Martian crust 

For all it was worth they turned their greedy eyes abroad to rust

And rest on Mother Earth

But in building their starships

They were taken ill in toil

And famine, pestilence and starvation

Crept upon them like a relentless snail

But it did catch them in the end

For finally their mission failed

With the loss of resources came the fight for land

And wars sprang up across the globe near and far at hand

Which none could hope to solve or understand

They fought until every last Martian soon was bleeding their blood

Into the ground

Then my eyes turned red to see the flood

Of blood leave its gruesome trail

Abandoned of its life the planet gave up too

And gravity a friend to so many, now became 

a bind for two

The last two souls left alive Martian Adam and a Martian Eve

And they left the planet on the last transport

Out to a distant reprieve

abandoned now the planet turned in its red sunset sinking way, 

out across the solar field for forever and a day 

Then Mother Earth spoke

Her voices sounded shrill

As the yelp of a pup:

Help, help the whelp

They're doing the same to me

My forest fires are burning

Polluted are my seas

My whale's song is drowning

In the dirty tides of misery

The men in their factories

The women in their yards

Building suiting and soldering

Robots for iron hearts

And doing their bidding

And bidding them well

Though they know not their nature's

Are in artificial hell

Developed and exploited

By the few who smell

Money at the bottom

Of the wishing well

Take heed, take heed the Angels cried

From a top the mountains

The well is drying, soon no more

Will flow the fountain

Take heed take heed the wolves howled

Take heed the bears baulked

Take heed the foxes spouted

Take heed the Herons squarked

Listen to mother nature

For she is whispering quietly to us

Press your ears to the ground and feel her cries

Of pain and anguish

No pain no gain cried the fat factory controller

No gain, no rain cried the weathermen

No money no honey cried the cockerel in the morning

Who was following the weather vein

No Sun no flower cried the honey bee

Who was shivering and dying

In an acid rain shower

No love no money cried the woman to the man

Ain't it funny hunny, cried the man back again

And the sworded word fish darted through the shallows

Because that was getting to be all that was left to him

And he looked up through his silver scaled eye

And saw the moon

The moon reflected the sun

Said - I am the voice of all mysteries past

What I have seen has come and gone so fast

I never forgot and I never laughed

Because I have seen life come and go

And I always will last

A reflected glory is what I am

I tell my story to the little lamb

Who comes into this world bleating and damned

To be another leg of mutton

But I shine on like a button

Lost in the endless threads of space

In the sewing basket of a pin cushion sky

That shines with a trillion pin pricks

And I say we are lost like a needle in a haystack

And all this mystery is fantasy

And all this fantasy is mystery

And what I am I am

And can be no other

Brother Sun and sister moon

I look upon the Earth gone soon

And at my back goes red Mars

Streaking a bloody horizon

Sister Sun and brother moon

The yin and yang

Of the silver balloon that floats above

But the big bang 

Will soon cause a mighty implosion

Up and down in and out

The breathing fire

Of inward doubt

The cave spirit rushes 

From hole to hole checking nightly

For the water vole

She was here I swear I saw a mouse

Creeping through my dark red house

But low and behold the water ran out

And then so too did the little red mouse