1. Prologue: First Song of the End-Time

          Herald

Behold the End-Time:
Dark days, dark days
Of holocaust and insurrection.
The End-Time is come!

          Visionaries

Warring images collide:
The orphans and the amputees
Bewildered brides arrayed in black
And highways thick with refugees.
    I am Sarajevo,
    Kigali and Beirut.
    I am a house divided
    The sniper and the parricide.
The global village trembles
And braces for attack.
Surely these are final days!

          Herald

Behold the End-Time:
Strange days, strange days
Of irony and deconstruction.
The End-Time is come!

          Chorus

There's a loud, insistent wail
In the Land of the Disenchanted
Where justice is a thing-for-sale
And compassion is out of fashion.
    I am California
    And New Jerusalem.
    I am the late Utopia
    The Promise spent and Hope denied.
The bureaucrats assemble
To handle the details.
Surely these are final days!

          Herald

Behold the End-Time:
Fierce days!
"Vengeance is mine!" cries the Earth.

          Chorus

Wait for Doomsday by my side
Beneath the bitter-orange haze.
Let's sail on agitated seas
And watch the hills around us blaze.
I thrill to meet the tempest
I dread the rising tide
I fear my own destruction
I cheer for my release!
Surely these are final days!