Rick Masters - Man Shall Follow lyrics

Hello old friend. It's been some years Since 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 confronting Your ravaged shores again. And it took me months to travel from The pale eastern lands Just 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 hot And I'm so soul-dead tired, I think I'll have to sit and rest My weary bones a while. You know that I've lost everything That 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 flies Beneath this hellish light. I can't believe we let it come to this Without 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 them And 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 if The crystal droplets from the sky Could harm my body or my mind? He chuckled softly, shook his head. He told me, "Son, the purest drops Of liquid you shall ever taste Will 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 inquired Why falling rain, so wet and moist, Must not be touched by human tongue Nor granted playground on Man's skin Regardless what his thirst requires? How could I tell them once that I Had tried to stop the rape of skies But somehow failed along the line And they were doomed to sit and watch As misty drops kissed blades of gra** Which slowly yellowed, bent and died? These tattered rags held to the end. I thought they'd never make it When that storm of acid rain rolled by And 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 need For acid rain had k**ed the seed. I sought what shelter they could give. The storm pa**ed on. It let me live... The buckles on my boots are jammed With mud from walking overland. The yellow suds that edge the shore carress my fingers, cool and warm. My clothing falls in sogging heaps And far out on the ocean's rim A lonely tower gapes and mocks As spray explodes against its skin. The wind, your froth, the breaker's din Assault my form, yet ease my dread. The droplets slither on my skin And Trickle down my barren head. For hair has gone like childrens' poems And chirps of birds and Autumn leaves No life to live, no faith to feed. For faith has fled with budding Spring And Nature's love and Autumn leaves These burning eyes that melt the beach And mourn again for turquoise skies And fields of hay and aqua waves Farewell to all and turns to rust As 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 k**ed the garden. I raise my arms in hopeless rage. I curse the cities of the dead. I wade into the ancient sea For the last whale's song had said "Man shall follow me..." And so we did. And so we did.