Bones Of Our Noble Dead

Bones Of Our Noble Dead
© Surazeus
2018 09 11

So many years ago we played together
after the teachers stuffed our minds with knowledge
to explore the roles we would play in life,
but our fun games became serious intent.

We imitated rituals of adults,
mocking meaningless actions they displayed,
till teeming energy of raucous play
became the drama of our nation-state.

While we were wandering in the wilderness,
facing hostile forces of hungry death,
we devised actions that helped us survive,
telling tales of heroes who did things right.

We base the legends of our superheroes
on moments of insight during fierce fight
when they outmaneuvered the enemy
to base sacred rituals on their success.

The mental energy of divine insight
that guided us well through waste land of fear
still drives us to perform daily routine
to maintain our food-production machine.

So that is why we wake up just at dawn,
wash clean with water and spark the warm fire,
then eat and plan the actions of our day
to maximize production of our hands.

While the sun glows bright in the boundless sky
we perform actions that produce more food,
then rest as the sun vanishes in night
to preserve our souls during the mute gloom.

We construct strong temples of shining truth
where we gather to feast and share our stories
on silent ground of the expansive world
to preserve the bones of our noble dead.

Alone we wander silent wilderness,
howling wordless at the horror of death,
but together in safe temple of light
we design common vision of success.

For one million years we struggled to live,
performing rituals each day to survive
through endless wars against nature and man,
but now we dominate this spinning globe.

Though still vast reaches of bleak wilderness
devour our bodies in waste land of war,
yet we can organize trained colonists
to terraform hell into fertile heaven.

We must unite the nations of our world
to cooperate through active resolution
with crafting hands to transform harsh waste land
into well-watered meadows of Elysium.

I wake up every morning before dawn
and think about defense of our homeland
against hostile nations who would attack
to control fertile fields where we grow food.

I wish we could live together in peace,
sharing the bounty of this spinning globe,
but they want to kill me and take my land
because they fear I want to kill them too.

My ancestor who taught us how to live
with generous love toward our fellow humans
now shines as numinous glow cloud of power
that guides our progress to dominate Earth.

I want to merge all our cultures in one
to assimilate the best of each nation
so we become one strong humanity
instead of factions who fight to survive.

Two towers of commercial power once stood tall,
shining at heart of our capital empire
till warriors from far desert hijacked planes
and smashed those towers with burning flames of hate.

The glorious pride of our great empire fell
to bury the bones of our noble dead,
obliterating code of liberty
that long guided our progress to survive.

We survived so long in the wilderness,
ring of poles where warriors guard families,
ring of stones where wizards organize missions,
to build vast cities shining on high hills.

We built castles from hard bones of the Earth
to survive two thousand years of despair
and now we build tall towers of steel and glass,
hoping to survive ten thousand years more.

Though terrorists strike to destroy our progress
developing technology through knowledge,
we build new temple to organize work
shining bright on bones of our noble dead.

We gather on shore of the flowing river,
people from every nation of the world,
to hold hands in circle of common hope
and sing for united nations of Earth.

If we work together for common goal
of terraforming Earth into Elysium,
lush paradise of gardens with fruit trees,
we can survive another million years.

Today we gather in Temple of Truth
to vow on the bones of our noble dead
that we will work together for world peace
till our planet is swallowed by the sun.