Last, or: Reflections on the Failure of the Pyrrhan Expedition
Interim in Terra, track 1
i stand alone
amid what's left of our conveyance
in the crater that it tore
i stand alone
amid the remnants of the corpses
of the entities it bore
i stand alone
----
they're closing in
i see their shadows moving cautiously
they haven't yet convinced themselves
i'm totally resigned
but they're closing in
they chased me valley after valley
they were herding me
but i guess they are now satisfied
'cause now they're closing in
----
with promise in our hearts
the skies we sailed
and when disaster struck our landing
we prevailed
for a time
i wonder how they'll feel in fifty years
when they discover how we failed
----
it's an embarrassment to think
of what we made it through
to get to where we failed
through ice and fire and impact
we survived
a fearful gauntlet
to get to where we failed
----
we had steel and simulations and sustainable supplies
but pomp could not defend us from the impact of the skies
the flags and trumpets tricked us into thinking we were wise
and we pretended
never daring to suppose we could do better
adhering to the overcautious rulebook by the letter
where there were lessons to be learned we held our fingers in our ears
and walked on past
but i still hope we're not the last
----
i think of home
i hope no longer for the now
but for the decades of adventure
that are surely now to come
i think of home
if they can learn from our collapse
take more precautions not to crash
take more precautions not to clash