Beyond Reason - Redgum

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 logic that had failed

And mines were merely silicon

The aimless world had power to grasp the thunder

And to dash it to the ground

We were slow to come to anger

We were slow to understand

And we groped the 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

Because as usual they’d seen it all before

And our freedom left us nothing

But to turn to face to tyranny of silence

Lest it blow away the dawn

A dark and dreadful morning

Of a limited exchange

Force in motion made the planet reel

The flash of sidelness wire ripped through avenues and highways

And explosion breed explosion from within

And the writhing earth in agony

The bleeding smoking wasteland

Where the winds sang songs of poison to the dawn

And wondered while we waited

If some beings out in space and time

Were watching just another fading star

Those who gained the shelters

Where 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 flag poles won so proud

Lay scattered on the cars and homes

Friends of ours, we 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