At the dawn of time you were born, a spark
flung from the cauldron of creation.
You journeyed onwards through cosmic dark,
child of chaos and imagination.
On your billion year swing around the sun
your orbit gradually decays as you surrender
to the cold equations of physics,
the inevitable laws of gravity,
and those laws bring you closer
and ever closer to a collision course
with our fertile world. Is this the end?
Are all our endeavours to come to this –
a half million tons of alien rock
crashing into the Earth at cataclysmic
speed. Can science save us? Can prayer?
Don’t hold your breath, you will have
no more use for it. The end is nigh.
Bill Fitzsimons