Wanderers and nomads have gone to see their chieftains Will this be the end of the rain and the birds? Who can send an emissary to speak to the seasons? For the ravens and the crows already soak up the skies I'm digging for some words beneath the stones in Zimbabwe I'm searching for a drum song in the jungles of Zaire I'm groping for the blood moon in the mountains of Malawi Looking for the lion of Ethiopia Settling dusk gets darkened by the bark of the baboon The frogs and the owls no longer call to the moon The warlords have gathered, blue smoke hiss from teeth of chrome And the baobab trembles in the boiling blood loam The fireplace is broken and the grinding stone too Its million pieces flung across the plains of Africa Each dusty fragment, a seed from which grows The memory of a debt that only you and I will know Wanderers and nomads have gone to see their chieftains Will this be the end of the rain and the birds? Who can send an emissary to speak to the seasons? For the ravens and the crows already soak up the skies Seven seasoned soldiers have been summoned from Saigon A craven walkie-talkie puts their bloodshot armor on Some drink beer, milk, some drink kinky-kola Sheep dogs live in Outeniqua, gun dogs in Angola Flames lick the corners of each hungry horseman's smile They have locusts in their scabbards and desert's in their eyes Passing through the air, they leave a sea of fetid rumors As they ride upon the skyline on a secret trail of lies Wanderers and nomads have gone to see their chieftains Will this be the end of the rain and the birds? Who can send an emissary to speak to the seasons? For the ravens and the crows already soak up the skies I found some words beneath a stone in Zimbabwe I heard a distant drum song in the jungles of Zaire The blood moon spoke of war in the mountains of Malawi But I never found the lion of Ethiopia Wanderers and nomads have gone to see their chieftains Will this be the end of the rain and the birds? Who can send an emissary to speak to the seasons? For the ravens and the crows already soak up the skies