In times gone by

Once a brilliant disk of gold
Set in a pristine sky . .
As azure faded to black velvet
And a trillion stars grasped the eye

Once starlight was so radiant
That it competed with the moon
And the moon itself was a vision
And lit the world like it were noon

But then came man and fire . .
And smoke soon filled the air
And then ingenious invention
Pursued by greed without a care

So the brilliant golden disk . .
Became an angry ball of red
And God’s star-studded heaven
Became a murky haze instead

The Earth dates back millions of years
But man’s arrival is quite recent . .
Yet in the short time he has been here
His behavior has been far from decent

Once established man destroyed . .
Almost everything that he saw . .
And eventually tarnished all the beauty
The very things that left us all in awe

For me . . I prefer a star filled sky
Yet sadly . . aircraft are mans preference
Of course he is well aware of pollution
Though he regards it with indifference  

Perhaps the governments of the planet
Will eventually find a way to cope
Meanwhile I dream of days gone by
As I sit and pray. . and hope

There is more talk than restoration
As countless wars are being fought
The greedy development of the third world
Simply makes me overwrought

Consequently I watch a murky coffee sunset
Whilst I daydream of blue and gold
And I don’t envy the younger generation
Of their sunset . . when they’re old



Albert Gazeley © March 2007