Watchtower Mayday In Kiev Lyrics

Music: Jarzombec, Keyser

Lyrics: Keyser

"The unleashed power of the atom changed everything

save our mode of thinking, and we thus drift toward

unparalleled catastrophes."

                            - Albert Einstein

In a nation for a dangerous penchant for secrecy

A dread disaster at Chernobyl was concealed

As a poisoning cloud spread over the Eastern Bloc

Alarming information was reluctantly revealed

An explosion in Reactor Four - a fire refusing to cease

No containment walls preventing radioactive release

Evidence that peaceful technology had gone awry

More catastrophically than Windscale or TMI

Alert - Celebration in Kiev

Under glowing skies - Soviet lies

Alert - In nearby Poland

A shower of radiation

Children iodized

Mayday - A day of rejoice

A cry of distress

Severe political fallout - toxic exchange of words

Soviet obscurantism under verbal attack

Abroad, outraged countries appeal for information

Met with grudging riposte, hesitant placation

At home, TASS reports no danger - nothing to fear

As deadly elemental isotopes spew into the biosphere

"The unleashed power of the atom ..." - A warning from the past

The benefits of technology are reversed by careless human error

Science, once a saviour, now an effective destroyer

We must apply our knowledge with care

Entombed in concrete, Chernobyl will forever remain

A monument to the chilling effects of negligence