Once, we were lonely islands
Divided by horizons
A hundred thousand tribes surviving, scattered far and wide
Hearing only stories
Of distant territories
Peering out across the miles between our shorelines
Then, we harnessed nature’s forces
Straddled backs of horses
Waging wars and crossing borders as our numbers grew
We bought and sold and traded
Oceans were navigated
And fates entwined by rails and roads and telephones, and soon
We cracked the code of flight
Spoke via satellite at the speed of light, and
Now, it’s feeling like a small town
With six billion people downtown
At a little sidewalk fair
In Earth Town Square
There are Germans selling Audis
Filled with gasoline from Saudis
To Australians sipping Kenyan coffee in their Chinese shoes
Argentines are meeting Mongols
Over french fries at MacDonald’s
And the place looks strangely tiny when you see it from the moon
And there’s music in the park, kalimbas and guitars
Bagpipes and sitars
Now, it’s feeling like a small town
With six billion people downtown
Even Babel can’t compare
To Earth Town Square
And as each hour goes by, ten thousand more arrive
And the din gets louder on Main Street
Where you can watch downtown boom
And wonder if we’ll make room
For everybody there
In Earth Town Square