no ceasing from exploration

under strange skies there'll be no thought of home
the pioneers will have no focus but next year
no need for memory when there's a present fear
but life won't last long when they're huddled under dome
on this new planet they've got so far to roam
before they test the limits under this fresher air
and have to settle down to normal work and care
and make the best use possible of rock and sea and loam
there's hope of finding atlantis or our alien brothers
hope too of creating what can't be found on earth
but what matters is that in our first astonished glance
we grok the strangeness but don't call for our mothers
instead we ponder the meanings of a second birth
and how in this odd place we make a human chance