Photographs and fairytales Are all we really know Of the planet our ancestors Deserted long ago Remnants of our carelessness Still rise as smoky plumes As the barren sphere of planet earth Out of the darkness looms Welcome back Centuries have passed Since humanity last stared At the world of our origins So we are unprepared Desolate and lifeless As we finally descend Burning beneath clouds of ash Too dark to comprehend We return to the earth When we touch down The dry ground cracks And as we step outside All of our hope instantly dies The seas, once so blue and full of life Now red and clouded We dare not even think about what lies Beneath the surface The landscape has been completely defaced Nearly all signs of life erased The land still bears the scars Of long-forgotten wars In the cities where the bombs fell The streets still swamped in gore A journey through the wasteland Reveals no trace of hope Our return voyage to our lander Cut short by wind and smoke Growing weak and hungry Our strength begins to fail Satellite systems obsolete In the filthy, gusting gale Welcome back to planet earth Take for granted and reap what you've sown Your mission was futile, you're never going home Planet earth is the last you'll ever know Petrified woodlands will become our graves The last of a species too selfish to be saved Planet after planet was fated To be destroyed by humankind Why did we ever return to planet earth? To suffer the fate we deserve? Headfirst into our doom The lessons we refused to learn Are now sealing humanity's tomb