MOONSHOT

Moonshot
© Buffy Sainte-Marie

Written after a conversation with Christian scholars who didn’t realize that indigenous people had already been in contact with the Creator before Europeans conquered them.

off into outer space you go my friends
we wish you bon voyage
and when you get there we will welcome you again
and still you’ll wonder at it all
see all the wonders that you leave behind
the wonders humble people own
I know a boy from a tribe so primitive
he can call me up without no telephone
see all the wonders that you leave behind
enshrined in some great hourglass
the noble tongues, the noble languages
entombed in some great english class
off into outer space you go my friends
we wish you bon voyage
and when you get there we will welcome you again
and still you’ll wonder at it all

Instrumental

an anthropologist he wrote a book
he called it “myths of heaven”
he’s disappeared, his wife is all distraught
an angel came and got him
his hair was light, his eyes were love, his words were true,
his eyes were lapis lazuli
he spoke in a language oh so primitive
that he made sense to me
off into outer space you go my friends
we wish you bon voyage
and when you get there we will welcome you again
and still you’ll wonder at it all

Jeremiah
© Buffy Sainte-Marie

Jeramiah comes from the philosophy degree side of Buffy. It calls for positive faith and action in spite of perceived injustice. The third verse is inspired, like her Cradleboard Teaching Project work, on Making It Better. Like turning lemons into lemonade.

Jeramiah Jeramiah
Honey won’t you please get up and light the fire
Jeramee-oh Jeramee-oh
It’s so cold and dark down here the folks can’t see oh

Will the meeting come to order to discuss
just exactly what the hell is gonna become of us

Sweet Melinda Sweet Melinda
She didn’t know the price until she walked right in there
Now they’ve got her Now they’ve got her
Banging on her head with everything they’ve taught her

She’s very hip but she is not too very cool
Big uniform he flipped her over with a backwards golden rule

Some will tell you Some will tell you
Tell you what you really want ain’t on the menu
Don’t believe them Don’t believe them
Cook it up yourself and then prepare to Serve them

Dance Dance to the music in the skies
Guess which one we are and whether we live before we die.