According to the Bible there is
“Heaven”
A high place where all good people go
When their Life’s innings is over.
But Bad folk go down to “Hell” –
To suffer “bottomless perdition”.

Yet we only have to look up
At the morning or evening sky
To see Planet Hell:
It’s the brightest “star” of all:
Venus!

And I believe
That out there amongst that ocean of stars
There is a so called “Exoplanet”
In a distant solar system
Like ours
Perhaps twice as big as Earth:
A sub-tropical world
With ice only at the very poles
And on lofty mountain tops.

I see a place of endless forest
Filled with butterflies
And songbirds.
Grassy plains too,
Roamed by alien buffalo.
Oceans teeming with fish
And dolphins
And colourful corals.

A world untroubled
By killing
Or pollution.
Dotted with tiny villages
Only
With peaceful inhabitants
Basking in afternoon suns.

I picture a utopian paradise
Shangri-la
Or what you will.
Another Eden,
Or if you prefer
Simply
Heaven.

Paul Butters

© PB 28\12\2020.

Another one for Norman Stevens.