If you look close enough at life,
observe with care the galaxy
and navel-gaze for long enough,
you will in time be made to see
we cannot by mere science find
an answer to the question why;
our lamp-oil may be well refined,
but we will still in darkness die.

We live atop a heavy tower
that teeters on its burdened base:
we drink a fresh-poured pint of power
and revel in our heightened place.
By intellect we’ve donned the crown,
from Babel’s peak we now aspire;
yet we’ve neglected to look down
and see the fundaments on fire.

Our morals have not matched our means:
for in this world that we’ve designed,
self-interest coldly contravenes
our common cause, and leaves us blind.
We’ve found a thousand ways to kill
but lost the ways to live, to feel –
we have engineered a modern marvel
and fallen asleep at the wheel.