There is a limit to the size of Earth;

We have to learn to live within this sphere.

This air, this land, these seas are all we have;

We can’t make any more, no matter how

We play and toy with innovative fakes.

No annex on the Moon, no Mars estate;

We work with what is here, without complaint.

There’s progress, there is fantasy, and then

Wet dreams of schoolboys wasting all our time.

The rest of us must put the hard yards in,

To act and, yes, to bully and cajole,

And not pretend, in some exalted role,

That we can simply check out of this world

And leave behind our banner, still unfurled.