No, we don’t deserve
a closer look at the stars
we desecrate earth
we’re bound to desecrate space
with atom bombs orbiting,
interstellar death
racing to colonize the
heavens, we’re helpless
we can’t even figure out
earth, in terms beyond net-worth
all for profits sake
we’ve left cultures in our wake
and push them under,
wondering why kupuna
cry over the things we’ve done
we live by the gun
killing millions and millions
killing planet earth
so corporations can take
more of what was never theirs
they want a mountain
on top of Mauna Kea
and they’ll say that you’re
anti-science if you’re in
defiance of ignorance
aimed at Hawaiians
but who understands the stars
more than Kanaka?
We desecrate the present
so we can look past the smog
but the die was cast
when we watched our neighbors starve
as food was rotting
behind locked market doors. Wars
are all fought for one reason
we’re crazy to think
governments have good intent
and that peace was why
America sent people
to the moon. It’s all about
rich exploiting poor
and sure, there’s more to it than
that, but not a lot.
We’ve poisoned our blue-green dot
now we’ll focus on the stars
maybe they hold the
key to fueling the market
tomorrow, who knows
we need more revenue flow
there are stock holders who want
much better returns
who cares if the heavens burn
who cares that we don’t
ever learn from our mistakes
and we don’t think they’re mistakes
they’re just risks we take
to make way more money, and
who are Hawaiians
to stand between rich people
and a boat load of space cash?
sure, it would be nice
to look back billions of years
but we can’t even
learn from yesterdays mistakes
what makes us think we will learn
anything beyond
warfare? The other planets
are fine without us
Hawaii was fine without
guns, and bibles, germs, and steel
the earth needs to heal
but we keep dealing death blows
so who knows how long
until Pele blows her top
until mother nature stops
putting up with us
we have no reason to trust
that anything good
will come from this telescope
sure, we can all hope
but our taxes buy the rope
used to hang cultures
out to dry, as mother earth
is sliced like a pineapple
so a few bad men
can add more zeros, can add
more of this sacred
mountain to the legacy
of Cook, so we can find more
places to exploit
for resources, for money
in the name of greed
but I suppose it makes sense,
we have to honor our God
so we’ll prostitute
the soul of those we conquer
and teach them about
Elvis Presley instead of
George Helm. We’ll teach them about
white navigators
like Columbus and like Cook,
we’ll tell them they need
to look at the stars, but we’re
fireflies in jars trying
to enlighten them,
we’re just a street lamp
believing that we
can enlighten the moon, we’re
singing out of tune, while they
are in chorus with
nature, with the stars and sky,
it’s a blatant lie
to say that the only key
to the future is held by
the same people who
have monetized the planet,
who have filled oceans
with plastic, and fill the world
with starvation and warfare.
No, we don’t deserve
a closer look at the stars…
soitgoes1984 