Flickers in the Dark

Oh, could we record sparks and flickers.

Those lifetimes that last just mere years.

To tell people "you won't be forgotten."

To allay our most basic of fears.

…

For two millennia, the Congress has governed,

For millennia ruled One-Hundred Worlds.

Ruled generations of Earth's star-borne children,

Lives and deaths, watched them unfurl.

…

Taken note, the flickers of living,

Very rarely seen sign of a fire.

Known two-thousand years of stability,

Not one world has invoked our ire.

…

Oh to know what we could of our people,

Oh to have such widespread control.

To record all their lives in great detail,

To not let knowledge be withheld.

…

To be masters of space and the stars spread throughout,

To know smaller stars all live and die.

To know and to see all there is in this life,

To not let ourselves be defied.