Man Shall Follow Lyrics - Singles - Rick Masters

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 grass 

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 killed the seed. 

I sought what shelter they could give. 

The storm passed 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 killed 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.