Lyrics

New World A-Comin'1helpless like this leader-  less like this,  heroless,  we met you: lover,  warrior, hater,  coming through the files  of the forest  soft foot  to soft soil  of silence:  we met in the soiled  tunnel of leaves.  Click lock  your fire-  lock fore-  arm fire-  arm flashed  fire and our firm  fleshed, flame  warm, fly  bitten warriors  fell.  How long  how long  O Lord  O devil  O fire  O flame  have we walked  have we journeyed  to this place  to this meeting  this shock  and shame  in the soiled  silence.  How long have we  travelled down  valleys down  slopes, silica  glinted, stones  dry as water,  to this flash  of flame in the forest.  O who now will help  us, help-  less, horse-  less, leader-  less, no  hope, no  Hawkins, no  Cortez to come.  Prempeh imprisoned,  Tawiah dead,  Asantewa bridled  and hung.  O who now can help  us: Geronimo, Tackie,  Montezuma to come.  And the fire, our  fire, fashioning locks,  rocks darker than iron;  fire betrayed us once  in our village; now  in the forest, fire falls  us like birds, hot pods  in our belly. Fire  falls walls, fashions  these fire-  locks darker than iron,  and we filed down the path  linked in a new  clinked silence of iron. 2It will be a long long time before we see  this land again, these trees  again, drifting inland with the sound  of surf, smoke rising  It will be a long long time before we see  these farms again, soft wet slow green  again: Aburi, Akwamu,  mist rising  Watch now these hard men, cold  clear eye'd like the water we ride,  skilful with sail and the rope and the tackle  Watch now these cold men, bold  as the water banging the bow in a sudden wild tide,  indifferent, it seems, to the battle  of wind in the water;  for our blood, mixed  soon with their passion in sport,  in indifference, in anger,  will create new soils, new souls, new  ancestors; will flow like this tide fixed  to the star by which this ship floats  to new worlds, new waters, new  harbours, the pride of our ancestors mixed  with the wind and the water  the flesh and the flies, the whips and the fixed  fear of pain in this chained and welcoming port.