| I am the very loneliest
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| Of creatures in the universe
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| Indeed I am an epitaph to Man
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| For having witnessed mass destruction
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| Like you’ve never dreamed and worse
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| I fear I shall bear witness once again
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| So said the lighthouse keeper
|
| As he struggled up the spiral stairs
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| Which led him to the laser flare
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| Which scanned the cosmic void
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| Where keeping constant vigil
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| He’d forewarn, this gallant guard of guards
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| Beware all ships the space graveyard
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| And it’s stones of asteroids
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| For though my race was thought immune
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| Themselves they did consume
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| So be warned or be mourned tomorrow
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| And from your deafess do desist
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| And pray take heed of this
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| For your present course
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| Can only end in sorrow
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| So said the lighthouse keeper
|
| As he wiped a teardrop from his nose
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| Upon which his spectacles rose
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| And gazed out to the stars
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| And like a portrait still he stared
|
| And sighing to himself declared
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| I must invent the perfect prayer
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| Not yours, not mine, but ours
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| Which in the name of charity
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| Might lead us to Eternal Peace
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| The ultimate philosophy
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| Some simple, single phrase
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| The old and much encumbered man
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| Then came to rest with head in hand
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| He thought
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| And thought
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| And thought away his last remaining day
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| (Epilogue:
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| When to his end the old man came
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| Death told him «You'll not die in vain»
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| And on his lips the fatal kiss was placed
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| But from within his falling chest
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| The old man uttered one last breath
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| And had we heard his parting word
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| We’d know that he had said. |