The night closed in around us

And we trimmed the lamps again

Against the greatest darkness man had known:

A nation’s grain was locked against

The famine of another

And hope was in the fast lane riding home

They were roaring from their buildings

Which were monuments to greed and fear

And the science and the logic that had failed:

And minds were merely silicon

Where the aimless world had power

To grasp the thunder and to dash it to the ground

We were slow to come to anger

‘Cause we were slow to understand

And we groped for words that might contain the rage:

And naked terror faded into shadows of despair

Still we fought the rising madness of our age

And we marched in tens of thousands

While the cynics printed curses

‘Cause as usual, they’d seen it all before:

And our freedom left us nothing

But to turn to face the tyranny of silence

Lest it blow away the door

The dark and dreadful morning

Of a limited exchange

The force and motion made the planet reel:

A flash of sightless white ripped through

The avenues and highways

Explosion bred explosion from within…

And a writhing earth in agony

And a bleeding smoking wasteland

Where the wind sang songs of poison to the dawn:

And we wondered while we waited

If some beings out in space and time

Were watching just another fading star…

Those who gained the shelters

Were those who faced the judgement

Of a pale and tragic sun upon our faces:

The crumbling ruins, the acid rain

The dull and dreary waiting

The sickness and the anger and the pain…

And the broken flagpoles once so proud

Lay scattered on the cars and the homes

Of friends of ours who didn’t even know:

And our memories closed upon a world

That didn’t see the morning

And a cold wind blew to the corners of our souls…