Letter to a Spaceborn Few
New Earth welcomes old children.
Come, rest your weary souls.
Welcome home, oh Terran children.
The new song, same as the old,
Welcomes you back home.
This, year 15AE.
3043 by calendar old.
No more year of lord,
For demons, not God, were found in Heaven.
But now Eden is reborn,
And weary angels descend from on high.
Listen to the words of planet young.
Learn how to sing its song.
Know that this is your world.
Humanity's world.
It is where you belong.
Many of you had homes beyond this world.
Many more know the home of old.
The old stories will survive.
On this ground, new ones will be composed.
New songs sung.
We will listen, we will learn, we will love.
Behold the light of a new sun.
Behold the glow of distant stars.
Imagine already, the constellations we will create.
Point to a star so distant, and say,
From that star, whence we came.
And you, my daughter,
You will run barefoot every day,
Across this young, unexplored land.
You will breathe Creation's air,
Unfiltered, untainted,
Hope and joy will fill your lungs,
Not drown in suffocation named despair.
You will make the first footprints in this land,
Continue walking the path we began 300,000 years before.
Even if the old tracks are forever lost,
New ones will know our feet.
You will chase the birds and dive for fish.
You will see an ark's bounty made manifest,
In planet that we may yet call Eden.
Free from demons descending from on high,
To deliver final judgement.
Listen to your heartbeat, my child.
Listen to the heartbeat of this world.
You will know the language of every rock.
You will know the joy of a blue sky.
The mountains will echo with our songs.
You will take a titan's seeds and run.
Spread them across the land.
Life will follow in your wake.
Love will whisper in your ear.
You will run in directions four,
Yet always return to your centre.
You are our world, we orbit you as moons.
You will see the sun rise in the east and set in the west,
As it was on Earth of old.
You will see the flow of rivers.
Feel the grass of plains.
You will see great cities arise,
As, in time, we reach to the stars.
And when at last you return home,
Listen to the sound of cricket and bird.
Think of those who never lived to see their home restored.
Of those we lost, of dreams faded.
Think of them, remember, do not forget,
And be content in your parents' arms,
That upon the breast of New Earth,
You are home.