Man's Aspiration

Man's Aspiration

by Robert Strength

Up there in the clouds, if you gaze with humble sight,

with your eyes wide open without fear of the light,

amongst the blown mists and floes of the wind,

you will witness and know the Kingdom of Men.

For Man had built skyward, in the essence of might,

defying the Earth in a race for new heights,

their ships and their hubris were all that they kept,

when, into the darkness, faithless, they lept,

"We are reckoned," claimed Man, "by all that we know,

and behold what our thoughts have wrought on this globe,

Our towers, our computers,

our roads, and our wars,

have set us on this journey, sojourn, and course,

The impossible depth of all that there is,

will soon, in due course, be a path that we tread,

for there is no truth that we shall not learn,

no concept unkept, no knowledge unearned!"

Up in the very top, in the very highest room,

of the very largest ship that circled our moon,

a man stood waiting, appearing utterly calm,

to launch his fair race into the darkness beyond,

Man's fleet, his fleet, was a symphony in tune,

courage set, farewells said, out beyond the moon,

John Caesar, the Captain, of Man's Aspiration,

had poured all that he was into this one occasion,

He surveyed the crew, as tension was mounting,

his motionless lips denied his feeling of shouting,

and then "GO!" his command set the fleet into motion,

and outward we sailed upon the Nothingness Ocean.

Time is most potent when patience is needed,

and the trek would be long before his trip was completed,

but patience was his, so he befriended his crew,

even one he made wife, and dear family ensued.

Time swept the travelers into family and kin,

and they sailed the empty stars unfettered by sin,

Until Thomas grew up and turned on their cause,

and tore down their sails using freedom as claws,

It was not John Caesar, Good Captain and Good Father,

who reached the far shore of this ocean sans water,

it was Thomas, the tyrant, the usurper and son,

who felled Man's aspiration before the journey was done.

Thomas knew no home, not Earth or any other,

he knew no safe harbors, he knew no comrades or brothers,

Thomas knew Thomas, his boredom and envy,

alone with no mission, and needful of Plenty,

He took the ship from his Father Captain, Judas son,

from the people of Earth of whom he was not one,

he squandered thier hopes, named himself Captain,

and sailed the fleet onward in search of his passions,

In the deep of space, they, no longer collective,

accidentally they realized their final objective,

in a fitful moment of punishing sobriety,

they met with the peoples of the universal society.

No ill, no war, no poverty or strife,

the people of elsewhere lived the perfection of life,

they loved and they grew and they loved what they grew,

and they wanted to share it, with us, all they knew.

Yet it was Thomas who spoke to the Council of Neighbors,

He spoke with his pride and he asked for their favors,

but the Great Ones in session looked into his heart,

and saw neither love, nor courage, nor art.

They saw that sad little man, Thomas, taker of hope,

and they retired to their privacy in order to vote,

for many long days they discussed and debated,

and they decided at length it wasn't man that they hated,

but the greed and the war and the fighting we needed,

and the fear that they held that our rage might be seeded,

and then grow in their people and bring them unrest,

it was the only new thing that our people possessed,

and so the council voted and they took away our ship,

along with our people that had accompanied the trip,

they took our their maps and marked us a loss,

we were to great a risk, of too great a cost.

They never returned, nor sent missive or letter,

in lieu of failure, perhaps, the silence was better,

and we stayed on our globe and thought the sky dead,

no more roads to journey, no more paths to tread.

And thus we sit spinning on our personal throne,

a kingdom of Man's aspiration, alone,

the greatest of creatures, as far as we know,

Pride born of ignorance, and ignorant so.