The Ballad of the Red Flame Lily

On this day

All the trees in Rhodesia are aflame

As the eyes of the quivering flowers

Of aching replete

And the lions

Overflowing with vengeance for the pines

Not occupation but a sentence, and in time

We'll all be faking retreat

Have you got rid of it yet?

Is faith corroded with neglect?

Can we ever hide hurt?

At least at night the harvest sun's yoke

Is rising like the rebel smoke

Beyond the oceans and swirls

And it will shame us now

And it will shame us still

And it will shame us now

And it will shame us still

What a hollow promise

From hollow men

What a shallow grave

For shallow men

You're the bull that paws the earth

The leopard that teaches to run

You're the crocodile that eats the sun

So we walk on through and beyond the failures of men

And we know there's a void at the centre of everything

And it will shame us now

And it will shame us still

And it will shame us now

And it will shame us still

And it will shame us now

And it will shame us still

And it will shame us now

And it will shame us still