Somebody Will
Ada Palmer

Our new world is so close
Mars has treasures we’re only beginning to find
Frozen mountains and crimson dust waiting for footprints that will not be mine
A hundred years to run the first tests, another to raise the first dome.
The Moon, then Mars, then Titan next, a lifetime to reach each new home.
And I want it so much.
Close my eyes, I can taste the Mars dust in the air
In the darkness the space stations shimmer in orbits that I’ll never share.

But I’ll teach the student who’ll manage the factory
That tempers the steel to make the colonies strong
While you write the code that’ll run the computers
To chart all the stars where our rockets belong
It will never be easy to wake from my dream
When the future I dream of is so far away
But I am willing to sacrifice
Something I don’t have for something I won’t have
But somebody will; somebody will someday.
And it feels like a waste
All this working and waiting and battling time
And all for a kingdom that all of my efforts will never make mine
But brick by brick the Pyramids rose, with most hidden under the sand
So life by life, our project grows in ways we may not understand
I am voyaging too
Gonna need the foundation as much as the dome for these worlds to come true.

So I’ll clerk the office that handles the funding
That raises the tower that watches the sky
While you run the bookstore that carries the journal
That sparks the idea that makes solar sails fly
It takes so many sailors to conquer an ocean
And so many more when it’s light years away
But I am willing to sacrifice
Something I don’t have for something I won’t have
But somebody will; somebody will someday.
It’s so easy to run
Hide away in my books, games, and fantasy plans
Let them call me a coward who can’t face reality’s grownup demands
But if I’m in love with a fantasy world, it’s not fantasy love that I feel
And so much more I feel for this
The world that created them, worlds we create with them, one way to make it all real
And I know we won’t stop
We’ve planned too many wonders for one little star
Though often the present may feel too complacent to take us that far.

So I’ll tell the story and you draw the pictures
and we’ll sing a anthem that banishes doubt
And host a convention that brings in the family
And kindles a fire that never burns out
There will always be reasons to give up the journey
Especially when it’s so easy to stay.

But I am willing to sacrifice
Something I don’t have for something I won’t have
And not only me
For WE are willing to sacrifice
something we don’t have for something we won’t have
so somebody will, somebody will…
So somebody will someday.

Notes

I fell in love with this one the first time I heard Dr. Palmer sing it; to me it is an anthem to the faith we bring to any project where we know we may not live to see its conclusion.

This song has been nominated for the Pegasus Awards for Best Song.