Mars Mission

We must go on, we must progress
to our destiny of Mars skies
we must go forward
onwards ever onwards
to cardboard box houses,
inner-city slums and crack.

over the edge of sentimentality
up the hill of discomfort
onwards ever onwards
out to the red planet
past the welfare mothers,
decaying hospitals and smog

we must hang on cosmic coattails
climbing to higher states
a United State of solar splendour 
it surely must come to pass
that we too shall have a space program
that we too shall have an underclass
onwards ever upwards
we must transcend our concern,
leave this sorry earth behind

embrace a sense of wonder
   and shun those who suffer
      ridicule those who question

no, we must go onwards
   ever onwards
until we reach a past 
more recent than that you seek
onwards to those
   dark satanic mills
onwards to the
   Red Scare
onwards to the future
   while we go back to the past