“If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years
How would men believe and adore?”
Emerson wrote with conviction, and a pen in perfect diction
He didn’t know he was foreboding future starless nights in store
For the people of that city, future starless nights in store

They didn’t see the signs before


Thickened smog clings to the city, fills the skies, it is a pity
None can see the starry nights through clouds of gray the smog hath bore
Take a breath of crisp night air…your mind, the taste of smog impairs
As you walk the city alleys it will strike your very core
The smell and taste of rancid haze will strike you at your very core

How dare you miss the signs before


Pollution seeps through nook and cranny, making streets a sight uncanny
For the eye of common man who could have stopped it all before
Had he cared enough to try, he could have stopped it by and by
In his hands the obligation was to keep the Earth in store
A simple task, or so it seemed, to keep his precious Earth in store

A duty that he did ignore


Man and woman, child alike, ever adding to the strife
Of littered city streets and alleys starting at the city door
Dropping trash along the road, city walkways overflowed…
Of mortal man it simply seemed that Mother Nature did implore
To stop the careless drop of garbage, Mother Nature did implore

But her pleas, mortal man ignored


Everything, they’re always burning while the sky is always yearning
For the unsoiled days of old before the days which burning bore
Burning bags of trash piled high, thick black smoke filling the sky
Causing damage to the planet that would stay forevermore
Burning through the skies, the damage that would stay forevermore

The damage that the burning bore


Unburned trash is stored in dumps, overflowing trashy lumps
Rotting, reeking piles of garbage, ever stinking to the core
Stored in landfills underground, just outside the edge of town
People adding to the mounds of garbage under earthen floor
Throwing away mounds of garbage seeping under earthen floor

Where it will seep forevermore


How could man have stopped this madness? Kept the earth from grimy sadness?
Is it true that by his hand Earth’s surface covers rotting core?
Not yet, it’s not, but soon you’ll see that this, the case will simply be
If mortal man won’t stay his hand from punishing the earthen floor
You will see the planet dying as he soils the earthen floor

So it will be forevermore


Unless he stops – it’s not too late to save Earth from a filthy fate
Man has control of his own actions; he will cause what lies in store
For this planet’s every ’morrow, he has the power to cause sorrow
But also power to resolve his every wrong and cause no more
For Earth’s sake may he choose the path to right his wrongs and cause no more

To strip Earth’s beauty nevermore


Man has but one last chance to see the stars at night as they could be
Shining brightly, tiny holes between our sky and heaven’s door
If he’ll heed to my forewarning and to Emerson’s foreboding
He will experience in full what Mother Nature has in store
If it still remains his wish to see on Earth what lies in store
To see the stars forevermore