Lament of the Spaceman's Wife

!lj first draft 2/9/88
--words copyright (C)  1988 by Ernest Clark
--melody: The Fishermen's Song

On a midnight pinnacle a woman is standing,
Too clearly show horizon and sky.
And the lights of humanity glitter mockingly beneath her
Like the shards of a dream crushed and scattered from high.

  For she has climbed up to condemn the high heavens
  For the merciless loss of her man,
  Whose ship drifts silently in far Solar orbit
  And it's feared she is lost with all hands.

On high, cold Cronos stalked his generation circle,
Red Ares cried denial of amends;
And she cursed as she begged with the gods of antiquity
To abandon this one time their cruel revenge.  CH.


There's a school where the daughters and sons of mechanics
Train mind and will to take wing and fly
To the ends of the earth, to the very horizon,
And beyond and above that, to sky.


What call leads a person to a life filled with peril,
And no wax can plug the ear against its sound?
It's when greed has no power, when ignorance is danger,
For there's no greater work can be found.  CH.