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 freed 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 in anger
‘Cause we were slow to understand
And we groped for words that might contain the rage:
And naked terror fade 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…