From the recording Porch Music
Footprints of Man - I have often heard folks worried about humans destroying the Earth. We vastly overestimate our power and significance on this planet. To Her, we are a pestilence, destroying the natural balance of everything in view for a few more dollars. However, what we can destroy is our ability to live here. If we continue our path, Mother Earth will eventually wash us away like a few grains of sand on an endless beach.
This song is new to the world, but I wrote it at Beluthahatchee during my writer's residency at Stetson Kennedy's home in Fruit Cove in June 2025. If there are spirits of Stetson and Woody Guthrie remaining there, they gave me this tune. If not, I got it from the squirrels. 😁
Lyrics
So long ago I was born to this place
A curse and a blessing so clear
With free reign to take whatever I need
From everything I might find here
So I took everything I could carry
Far more than I ever could need
Because the one with the most gets to sit on the throne
And rule over this kingdom of greed
A mighty tree bends with the ages
And mountains give way to the wind
But everything bows down to progress and is crushed by the footprints of man
A half million years in the blink of an eye
Gone are the ramparts and walls
The mountains and oceans have shifted and moved
But I've left no traces at all
The trees and the meadows are green again
The air and the oceans are clean
The fishes, the birds, and the animals live
Like they did before I cam to be
A mighty tree bends with the ages
And mountains give way to the wind
But there's not a trace of a footprint from man
Never to walk here again