I'll say it right off the top: this is a rather cynical piece, at least towards the beginning, and it does have a couple semi-esoteric references. For those who don't know: ethanol is an alcohol often used as a substitute for petroleum, while TDP (thermal depolarization) and bio-d are alternate forms of petroleum... I think you probably know what nuclear war is all ready.

Enjoy!

---

Thoughts and wishes, hopes and dreams,

not everything is as it seems

when one plus one can equal three,

when credit cards hang from a tree,

when murder’s called by a different name -

isn’t it murder all the same?

Starshine gleams on factories

for ethanol and TDP,

and the red moon in hazy skies

watches as a child cries.

-

Her eyes are stung by diesel fumes

and her throat from filthy blooms

of chemicals from factories

for nuclear war and bio-d,

and still she looks up high and far

to make a wish upon a star,

a wish for parents reunited,

a wish for flowers in the blighted

dust-dry field behind her home.

A mangy dog with an old bone

wanders past in the dead of night.

She stays away: strange dogs bite.

-

Isn’t that this new world’s way?

Here tomorrow, but not today,

waiting for utopia

that never comes; look, see, a

brand new world! But for right now

corruption bends to take a bow.

And perhaps utopia

reality will never be, a

myth, another dying dream

that vanishes in hot sun-beams.

-

Star light, star bright, comes the chant.

Martin Luther did not recant

his faith and dream; now will I?

Look up again into the sky.

Hid away in night’s darkness

is plague, and fear, and ugliness,

and stars still shine above the haze

that gathers there on summer days.

-

Far, far to the North, I hear,

and South also, far from the fear

of civilization’s discontents,

with all the gold and money spent,

there is an odd phenomenon

that sometimes plays until the dawn,

the Northern Lights, in green and blue

and gold and red and silver too.

And to my eyes, they seem to be

the dreams and wishes of the sea

and earth and sky that pass before

the children standing at the door.

-

Star light, star bright, comes the chant:

if Huss and Luther did not recant,

then nor will I. I will keep

my hopes alive, and will not weep

for wishes lost so long ago,

or for the world that I now know.

Perhaps, tonight, I’ll make a wish

that will survive without tarnish,

blot, or stain - one that will come true,

perhaps for me, and maybe you.

Well? Like? Dislike?