Mice Ruined Terra - Phillip Mills, April 2007 TTTO: God Lives On Terra, (J. Ecklar) I was born a Vogon child on a world described as, "Yuck!" But I escaped to sail through space (Improbably good luck). For I was press-ganged to the crew: construction fleet thirteen And flew out to this world which is the ugliest I've seen. Now in some far lost sector, there's a hellish world indeed With molten sulphur, deep-red flames, and fumes to make eyes bleed, But, still, that world is heavenly compared to what I see When I look at a "forest" that cannot support one tree. 'Cause mice ruined Terra with a failed experiment. Producing smog over concrete waste could not be pure accident And when I watch the daylight turn from gray to darker gray, I know mice ruined Terra in their own vermin way. Now we're going to build a bypass and we'll bulldoze this whole lot. For half a stick of chewing gum, I'd just leave and let it rot And I respond to their laziness with no sympathy or tears. The warnings have been there to see for all of fifty years. Yes, I've seen this whole damned galaxy and I've written poems 'bout that, But of this planet, not a word, only joy I won't be back And I'm glad most worlds are rodent-less, so I never catch a glimpse Of hateful mice who trashed this world and blamed it on the chimps. For mice ruined Terra: all the oceans, sky, and land. Why my home world got so bad a rap, I do not now understand. A hyper-space express route marks those pests' last resting place. For, mice so wrecked Terra that we kept them out of space. Yes, mice ruined Terra then died and left no trace.