Rick Masters - Man Shall Follow Lyrics
Hello old friend. It's been some yearsSince I have have journeyed here, to your shore.I sought you out, this last Autumn,For I feared I'd never see you anymore.In thirty years, the world has changed,Though not the way we planned.I find myself confrontingYour ravaged shores again.And it took me months to travel fromThe pale eastern landsJust to reach you, Red Pacific,And to walk your barren sands.They've given us just five more months'Til the food is gone, back home.I cut my share and came to you.By Spring, we'll leave you all alone.That blazing sun is so damned hotAnd I'm so soul-dead tired,I think I'll have to sit and restMy weary bones a while.You know that I've lost everythingThat I've ever loved. It's true.But what I've lost is nothing,When I see what we've done to you.For nothing lives. Nothing fliesBeneath this hellish light.I can't believe we let it come to thisWithout a fight.When Earth was new and I was young,A time so far removed from now,The swollen skies released their seeds and thunder,Spitting garish light that froze the swaying of the trees.A raindrop splattered on my lips.It skittered, wet, across themAnd thrilled my tongue in cold delight.One night, when the Earth was new and I was young...Oh! A time so far removed from now.Then in a rush of cautious doubt,I sought my pa to ask him ifThe crystal droplets from the skyCould harm my body or my mind?He chuckled softly, shook his head.He told me, "Son, the purest dropsOf liquid you shall ever tasteWill be the ones from angry skies."What have we done to change his words?The raindrops, all around us, fell.What could I tell my boys when they,Through parched and burning lips inquiredWhy falling rain, so wet and moist,Must not be touched by human tongueNor granted playground on Man's skinRegardless what his thirst requires?How could I tell them once that IHad tried to stop the rape of skiesBut somehow failed along the lineAnd they were doomed to sit and watchAs misty drops kissed blades of grassWhich slowly yellowed, bent and died?These tattered rags held to the end.I thought they'd never make itWhen that storm of acid rain rolled byAnd thunder split the lightning sky."Doom!" rang the hills, the echo clear,Resounding through the skags so drear,Atremble upon that sterile plain,All frozen in majestic pain,All shorn of their eternal needFor acid rain had killed the seed.I sought what shelter they could give.The storm passed on. It let me live...The buckles on my boots are jammedWith mud from walking overland.The yellow suds that edge the shoreCarress my fingers, cool and warm.My clothing falls in sogging heapsAnd far out on the ocean's rimA lonely tower gapes and mocksAs spray explodes against it's skin.The wind, your froth, the breaker's dinAssault my form, yet ease my dread.The droplets slither on my skinAnd Trickle down my barren head.For hair has gone like childrens' poemsAnd chirps of birds and Autumn leavesNo life to live, no faith to feed.For faith has fled with budding SpringAnd Nature's love and Autumn leavesThese burning eyes that melt the beachAnd mourn again for turquoise skiesAnd fields of hay and aqua wavesFarewell to all and turns to rustAs all that lived returns to the dust.Life-maker, life-taker,The story once was written,Of Evil, we tasted.You banished us from Eden.Now, we're sorry. I'm so sorry!How can we beg your pardon?We were unworthy shepherds.We killed the garden.I raise my arms in hopeless rage.I curse the cities of the dead.I wade into the ancient seaFor the last whale's song had said"Man shall follow me..."And so we did.And so we did.
