Once upon a distant star
way away from where we are
sentient beings from afar
told a tale in their memoir.

Having ruined their own home,
they set out through space to roam
over tides of cosmic foam
leaving their celestial dome

for a new pristine abode
where clear liquid water flowed,
with a built-in ethics code
in this novel episode,

thus to avert disaster
and avarice to master,
seeking harmony vaster
and peace agreements faster.

A star’s luminosity,
apparent ferocity
or globe’s grandiosity
to aid reciprocity

of living things emerging,
influential converging
for evolution surging
via natural urging

were some ingredients prime,
plus an agreeable clime,
that served as reason and rhyme
to detect a place in time.

Finding it was quite a feat!
They encountered one replete
with air to breathe, food to eat,
winter chill, and summer heat…

There in the Goldilocks zone,
though some aspects were unknown,
it felt right, that one alone.
All the qualities were shown

to be livable it seemed,
more so than they’d ever dreamed.
Sunshine o’er the landscape beamed.
Rivulets of rainfall streamed.

Neither torrid nor too cold,
not too youngish nor too old,
nights of silver, days of gold,
lit with radiance untold,

lands of plenty, sea to sea,
circumstellar to a T—
this would suit them perfectly.
What a haven it could be!

They might call this planet Earth.
It would prove its precious worth
as a globe devoid of dearth
where they’d have a true rebirth…

So the mortals settled in
with their tribal kith and kin
their adventure to begin,
standing firm through thick and thin.

Did they behave corruptly?
Their story stops abruptly—

unless there’s another end,
which those earthlings later penned,
when they’d waked to comprehend
that their faults they could amend

plus troublesome woes transcend
and enlightened truth befriend…

Well, anyway, let’s pretend!

Note: Goldilocks zone, aka, habitable zone, is a zone around a star having temperatures and other conditions that can support life on planets…