FATHER
Let there be, let there be

 

And God saw it was good, it was good....

Let there be, let there be
Let there be.... Let there be....

FATHER
It’s not enough. It’s still not enough.
There was something more in my dream:
something could see it and share it.
What was it, though? I only know
I wasn’t lonely any more.
There is one more thing to build,
one more void that must be filled.
I’ll make creatures I’ll call... Children....
shaped like me!

ALL
Let there be, let there be...

FATHER
Something, someone small and skinny
clawless, furless, finless, fangless

ALL
Let there be
Man, who can—

FATHER
Wander over my flaxen plains,
wonder up at my granite mountains
Count the stars
and wish for wings
and hold a tool
and think of things
And search for answers he cannot see

STORYTELLERS
And dream of glory

FATHER
And worship me!

FATHER
Let there be, let there be

 

And God saw it was good, it was good

 

FATHER and STORYTELLERS
Let there be, let there be
Let there be.... Let there be....

STORYTELLERS
And the Father breathed into his children the breath of life.

FATHER
Let...

STORYTELLERS
And the children became living souls.

FATHER
there...

STORYTELLERS
And the Father gave to His children a garden, and called the garden Eden.

FATHER
be!

ALL
Let there be... !

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The Tree of Knowledge

EVE
But Father, if the tree isn’t good for us, why did you put it here?

FATHER
There are things a father knows a child cannot.
I think you would agree, you’re newer here than me.
Have faith. I have my reasons you cannot see
in your best interest, so no more questions about that tree.

EVE
But Father, why can’t we know everything that you know?

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The Naming

FATHER
I know! Let’s play a game!

ADAM
A game! What sort of game?

FATHER
Naming the animals!
Come and gather in the meadow,

in the meadow, in the sun
Come together everyone.

Now the naming has begun.
Leave your burrow, field and furrow

for the meadow and the sun
Come together everyone.

Now the naming has begun.
The naming, the naming...

ADAM and EVE                 FATHER
The naming, the naming...     Ah ah ah oo way ah.

EVE
Two footed

ADAM
Four footed

EVE
Six footed

ADAM
More footed

EVE
Fleet footed

ADAM
Sure footed

ADAM and EVE
What a grand array-o

EVE
Duck-billed and red breasted

ADAM
Star-nosed and quill-crested

ADAM and EVE
No wonder You rested on the seventh day-o
Stripe and spot, feather and fur--
maybe You forgot how many there were!
Hoot and honk, whistle and purr,
flap and gallop and hop.
Once You started making them
it seems You couldn't stop!

MEN                                            WOMEN
Come and gather in the meadow    Two footed, four footed
in the meadow, in the sun             Six footed, more footed
Come together everyone.            Fleet footed, sure footed
Now the naming has begun         What a grand array-o.
The naming, the naming…           The naming, the naming…

ADAM
All right, let’s start at "A," for Adam. A… A… ahhhhhh, aardvark!

EVE
My turn. That one over there is an aardwolf.

ADAM
Addax.

EVE
Agama.

ADAM
Agouti.

EVE
Alligator.

ADAM
Amphiuma.

EVE
This is fun!

ADAM
Anaconda.

EVE
Antelope.

ADAM
Armadillo.

EVE
Avadavat.

ADAM
Axolotl.

EVE
Aye-aye.

FATHER
Aye-aye?

EVE
Aye-aye!

ADAM
Ai-ai-ai, we'll never be done!

ADAM and EVE
Wings are wavin', tails are waggin’
Kangaroo, kinkajou, komodo dragon
lion, lemur, hartebeest, hare,

chimpanzee and cinnamon bear.
Numbat, wombat, jaguarundi,

deermouse, dormouse, coati mundi,
peccary, porcupine and pronghorn,

tiger, tortoise, unicorn!

ALL
Come and gather in the meadow,
in the meadow, in the sun
Come together everyone

FATHER
Now the naming....

ADAM
Vikuna!

EVE
Walrus!

FATHER
Now the naming....

ADAM
Yak!

EVE
Zebra !

STORYTELLERS                 FATHER
Now the naming...                  Ah ah ah oo way ah....
It is done!

ALL
All done!

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Grateful Children

ADAM and EVE
Oh Father, for all we have received,
we thank You.
Here we are, your grateful children.
All you give is all we know.
In this everlasting springtime,
may your perfect garden grow.

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Father’s Day

FATHER
Don’t they look sweet when they’re asleep?
Sleeping there like angels, innocent and simple—
I think she’s got my nose. I think he’s got my dimple.
In my own image, from my likeness are they sprung
They will keep me company, they will keep me young.

That’s what it means to be a father.
Planning their future as you watch your children sleep.
That’s what it means to be a father.
I never knew that I could feel a love so deep.

Well, I will be their teacher and I will be their guide.
And everything they’ll ever need, I’ll be there to provide.
And in return, they’ll love me—stay forever at my side.
That’s what it means to be a father.

For I have built a universe spectacular and new.
And I sat there in my universe

and learned that this was true:
What use is a universe with no one to give it to?
Not a hill of beans, ‘til you pass along your genes.
That’s what it means to be a father.

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Perfect

STORYTELLERS
And the night was perfect,
and their dreams were perfect
and they woke with the dawn,
and smiled with a yawn at one another.
And with a gentle kiss,
they soon discovered this:
their love was more than sister and brother.

FATHER
Well, after all, they were made for each other.

ADAM and EVE
Of all this perfect garden’s perfect sights
you are the sweetest of my earthly delights.

STORYTELLERS
And their love was perfect,
and the day was perfect.
And the next was perfect,
and the next... was perfect.
And the day after that….
and the day after that,
each one perfect as could be.

And as the days went by, though she could not say why,
the woman went to spy on that curious tree.
And she’d stand there all hesitant and hovery
and each day she drew closer, until she made an
OH! surprising and bewildering discovery—

EVE
Come, Adam, quick, Adam!
Wait ‘til I show you what I’ve found!

ADAM (spoken)
Not now, dear. I’m trying to put the insects into alphabetical order. Ant... aphid....

EVE
No, Adam, now, Adam!
It’s a thing that will astound you!
When I show you what I’ve found, you won’t believe—

ADAM
Eve!

STORYTELLERS
And she brought him to the tree,
where he knew they should not be.

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The Spark of Creation

EVE
Beyond, beyond....
It sounds full of wind and mist, doesn’t it?
It means other things exist, doesn’t it?
Beyond, beyond....
It says, "Adam, leave your list." Doesn’t it?
Father, why does my head
feel this joy and this dread
since the moment I said... Beyond!

I’ve got an itching on the tips of my fingers
I’ve got a boiling in the back of my brain
I’ve got a hunger burning inside me cannot be denied.
I’ve got a feeling that the Father who made us,
when he was kindling the pulse in my veins
He left a tiny spark of that fire smoldering inside

The spark of creation is flickering within me
The spark of creation is blazing in my blood
A bit of fire that lit up the stars

and breathed life into the mud
The first inspiration, the spark of creation.

I see a mountain and I want to climb it.
I see a river and I want to leave shore
Where there was nothing, let there be something

—something made by me
There's things waiting for me to invent them.
There's worlds waiting for me to explore
I'm an echo of the eternal cry of "Let there be..."

The spark of creation, burning bright within me
The spark of creation won't let me rest at all
Until I discover or build or uncover

a thing that I can call my celebration

of the spark of creation.

The spark of creation: may it burn forever
The spark of creation: I am the keeper of the flame
We think all we want is a lifetime of leisure,
each perfect day the same, endless vacation
Well, that's all right if you're a kind of crustacean,
but when you're born with an imagination
sooner or later, you're feeling the fire get hotter and higher:
The spark of creation!

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In Pursuit of Excellence

SNAKE
I've been watching you for a while now,
my pretty little missssss
And I've got to tell you thissss:
you make me want to hisss.
Your aimless curiosity
is fast becoming tiresome.
Knowledge, dear, is power,
and it’s high time you acquire some.
Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb....

Lesson one for free; repeat it after me:
I'm in pursuit of excellence
Excellence is what I wish
Once I was a feckless dreamer—
now no being is supremer.
Why waste time wallowing in ignorance?
Why be just a big fat fish in a tiny little pond?
Look beyond!
And if the quickest route
means a taste of forbidden fruit
What the hey, it’s all in pursuit of excellence...

Time for some sophisticating.
It’s no sin to be scintillating.

So don't be such a stiff.
Mmm... Just take a sniff
Really, what's the diff... if
a couple fibs are spoken, a couple vows are broken?
That's the price, I guesss (no pain, no gain!)
You'll be swiftly overtaken by some ambitious snake unlesss
you progresss, learn to dresss for successssss

EVE
Yes!

SNAKE and EVE
We’re in pursuit of excellence.
Winners learn to take the risk
while the losers discusssss...
(That'sss why they're losersss!)
Pass the tessst when you're tested;
be the besssst, not the bested
Let other nervous wrecksss
stay too frightened to stick out their necksss
They're not in pursuit of excellence like usss...
like ussss... like ussssss!

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The End of a Perfect Day

STORYTELLERS
And the woman did eat, and her eyes were opened.
Through her tears, she saw the beauty all around her.
It was the end of a perfect day.
Nothing was different, but nothing would ever be the same.
It was the end of a perfect day.

FATHER
Adam? Eve?


Childhood’s End

STORYTELLERS
And they heard the voice of Father
walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
And from Father’s presence, among the thickest trees
They hid themselves away....

FATHER (spoken)
So... You have tasted the fruit.

EVE (spoken)
Yes, Father. But it’s all right! It didn’t hurt me after all. And I can see so clearly now. I can see what you can see!

I can see, I can see... how we can build things from trees
We can use the winds and rivers—
I can see: there’s so much more for us to see!

FATHER
Eve, you see too much... can you see you have to go?

EVE (spoken)
Go?

FATHER (spoken)
Leave the garden.

EVE (spoken)
But why?

FATHER (singing)
This is a place of innocence
This is a place for children,
and you are a child no more.

Adam, Eve is leaving here.

ADAM (spoken)
Well then... what if went with her?

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A World Without You

FATHER (spoken)
Then you would never see me again.

ADAM
Oh, my Father, Lord and Creator
You know that half my heart is Yours.
All that You gave me—I can’t repay You.
If I betray You, I’ll break in two.
How could I live in a world without You?

FATHER
You’ll stay here, Adam. Be my son forever.

ADAM
But, oh, my life’s partner, my wife, my lover—
You know that half my heart is yours.
Each time I see you, you fill my spirit.
Just knowing you’re near, it makes the day new.
How could I live in a world without you?

Oh, Father, please don’t make me choose.
Either way it’s more than I can bear to lose.
Either way, it’s ripping out my heart.
This choice is tearing me apart!

FATHER
You see what you have done?
Pain has come into the garden.
Where there is choice, there is pain.
Make this one choice, my son—

choose not to eat this fruit,
and you will never have to make a choice again.

ADAM
Oh, Eve, what would you give
if this day you could relive?
Would you let the apple go uneaten?

EVE
...No. I cannot bear to feel this pain,
but I would not go back again.

ADAM
Oh, my Garden, all peace and beauty,
I know that all my heart is yours.
I want to stay here, stay here forever.
Father, forever. I cannot leave.
But, Eve, I don’t know what else to do.
How can I live... I cannot live...
I will not live in a world without....
You.

FATHER
Adam!

Go Back to the Top


The Expulsion

FATHER
Oh, my children that I love so well,
what wrong you do to me.

EVE (spoken)
We’re still your children. You can go on loving us.

FATHER
Why could you not resist the spell of one seductive tree?

EVE (spoken)
We still love you!

FATHER
When all around you I gave you fields to roam
Sapphire skies and chromium waterfalls
All that I had to give, I gave to you—

EVE (spoken)
But, Father, didn’t you think we were every going to grow up?

FATHER
—ungrateful children, live in the wilderness!

EVE (spoken)
Why did you put questions in me?

FATHER (spoken)
Why did you disobey me ?

EVE (spoken)
That's not an answer!

FATHER
Bear your own children!
Answer for yourselves!

ADAM (spoken)
We will!

STORYTELLERS
Sweat!

FATHER
to make your daily bread

STORYTELLERS
Sweat!

FATHER
while thorns and thistles mock your harvest!

STORYTELLERS
While thorns and thistles mock your harvest.

FATHER
Sweat to the day you return to the clay

STORYTELLERS
You will return to the clay

FATHER
for which it seems you yearn.
Dust you were, dust you are.

STORYTELLERS
To dust you will return!

FATHER
And at this place

STORYTELLERS
And at this place

FATHER
I set my sword

STORYTELLERS
Now and forever will it burn!

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The Wasteland

STORYTELLERS
And the man walked through the acrid ash of Heaven
To the smold’ring tree destroyed by Father’s wrath.
And he carved from it a staff to lean on in the aftermath.
And the man and woman went out from the garden
And when they turned to look, the pathway back was gone.
So they turned and set their eyes to the land that lies... beyond!

Red rock and outcrop stone,
and the sun glares off a bleaching bone
There's no comfort or softness here,
there's only the wasteland

The land of the hunter, the stalker and the skinner
Where you're either the diner or the dinner
and the line between man the beast
keeps getting thinner in the wasteland.

In the wasteland, the land laid waste
The fruit of knowledge has a bitter taste
but the bliss of ignorance can never be replaced
It's lost in the wilderness.

Then there came a day in a chilly rain,
a child was born in sweat and pain
But they loved him still,
and they called him Cain of the Wasteland.

In the wasteland, the life forlorn
Two more years, and one more morning
there was another cry heard and another boy born
to be lost in the wilderness.

Heat-baked and dust storm-driven
and one false step stays unforgiven
And all that you know is
you weren’t made to live in the wasteland.

Go Back to the Top


The Spark of Creation—Reprise One

EVE
I feel a coldness in the pit of my stomach
I feel a watchfulness in back of my eyes
I carry a load of heavy foreboding I cannot explain.
My boys are healthy, they grow bigger and stronger
No sign of trouble, but I recognize
the heat and the hunger of when I was younger—
I see it now in Cain.
I used to think it was the spark of creation,
but was it just a defect in me?
A flaw in my nature?
And now look what I’ve done:
I’ve passed it to my son.
This wild inclination...
Is it the spark of creation?

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Lost in the Wilderness

ABEL                                 
Here we are, Your grateful children    
Please accept our sacrifice

May You hear us and forgive us

bring us back to Paradise....

 

All these years of this cruel joke--

the best of our harvest going up in smoke!

Praying for a future from these silent stony shelves.

How much more of this must we take?
This is the morning we finally make a future for ourselves!

ABEL (spoken)
But, Cain, if it’s God’s will that we were put here—

CAIN
Is it God’s will, or have we all been conned?
Brother, we will never know—
we will never grow, if we never go... beyond!

I never made this world; I didn't even lose it
And I know no one said it was fair.
But they had a garden once,

they had the chance to choose it
They gave it away, including my share!

And now we're lost in the wilderness—

lost, crying in the wilderness.
And if anyone’s watching,

it seems they couldn’t care less!
We’re lost in the wilderness.

You follow all the rules; you swallow all the stories
And every night, you wish on a star.
Dreaming a day will come, trusting in allegories
And every morning, boy, look where you are:

Lost in the wilderness—

lost, slowly dying in the wilderness.
With no chance of living, boy, until you confess
you’re lost in the wilderness.

Don’t you ever watch the eagle fly to the sun
and wonder how he got to feel so free?
If you’ve ever have, you know the journey’s begun
Hey, what have we got to lose, boy,
when already we are lost in the wilderness?
And where we are headed, boy, I couldn’t even guess
But off we’ll go without a warning,

running as we hit the ground
Where our future lies a-borning,

where our hearts are outward bound
‘til one bright and distant morning

we may stop and look around
and there in the wilderness, finally we’ll be found!

Go Back to the Top


Close to Home

ADAM
All that I had to give I gave that boy
Once he was young, and once he brought my heart such joy
He'd ride my shoulders, and ‘cross the fields, we'd roam
I still can see those moments like yesterday
I was a fool to think they'd make him want to stay at home....

YOUNG CAIN and YOUNG ABEL
One two three owls are in the tree
Four five six foxes in the sticks
Six five four goslings on the shore
Three two one, Now we all go home....

ADAM
We tried to make a home.

YOUNG CAIN and YOUNG ABEL
One two three owls are in the tree

ADAM
Heaven knows the life's been hard

YOUNG CAIN and YOUNG ABEL
Four five six foxes in the sticks

ADAM
Summers brief and arid

YOUNG CAIN and YOUNG ABEL
Six five four goslings on the shore

ADAM
Winters bleak and numb

YOUNG CAIN and YOUNG ABEL
Three two one, now we all go home.

ADAM
Look what we call home.
These old walls are stained and scarred.

EVE
I can still remember what each scar was from.

ADAM
You could call it run down....

EVE
Worn out...

ADAM
Threadbare...

ADAM and EVE
And I guess you'd come close to home, close to home...

ADAM
And I remember in someone else’s garden long ago
We had all we could eat.

EVE
But it seems the fruit that our hands grow
somehow tastes twice as sweet.

ABEL
Six five four goslings on the shore
Three two one, now we all go home...

ADAM
On this barren plot

ABEL
One two three owls are in the tree

ADAM
We’ll plant our wheat and dig our wells

ABEL
Four five six foxes in the sticks

ADAM
And we’ll be a family

ABEL
Six five four goslings on the shore

ADAM
steady as a star.

EVE
Look at what we've got

ADAM and ABEL
Ba ba bum, ba ba ba ba bum

EVE
Only what we've made ourselves

ADAM and ABEL
Eight nine ten, now we start again

EVE
Though it’s next to nothing,
look how rich we are.

ADAM
Funny now how Eden doesn't seem so far.

ADAM and EVE
Come sit beside me in the dying light
What storms the morning brings,

we'll weather all right
Your hand in my hand,

and as we sit here huddled in the gloam,
paradise seems strangely close,

close to home...

ABEL
Ba ba bum, ba ba ba ba bum

ADAM and EVE
Close to home...

ABEL
Three two one, now we all go—

FAMILY
Home.

Go Back to the Top


A Ring of Stones

CAIN
Abel! Mama! Papa!
Come, Abel, quick, Abel!
Wait ‘til I show you what I found!

ADAM
Cain, before you say another word—

CAIN
No, Papa, now, Papa!
It’s a thing that will astound you!
When I show you what I’ve found, you won’t believe!

ADAM
Eve!

EVE
Come on!

STORYTELLERS
Over river wide, and mountain tall
they traveled far beyond the waterfall
to a place and a day that will change them all
in the wasteland...

CAIN (spoken)
Look!

ABEL (spoken)
What are they?

CAIN
(spoken) Stones. It’s a ring of giant stones!
(singing) All of my life, I think it’s this I’ve been seeking.
Pent up inside me like an underground spring
Finally a future, finally an answer
written in a ring of stone!
Finally proof of what I’ve always known:
We are not alone!
Damned, we may be, but we are not alone!

EVE
All of a sudden I can feel the old tingling
The urge to question, the itch to explore
I feel it once more...

CAIN
Stones the size of giants in a perfect circle—

EVE
What could be their purpose? What could be their meaning?

CAIN
in a perfect circle!

EVE
How could they have raised them?

ABEL
Must have taken hundreds!

CAIN
Stones the size of giants!

ABEL
How long have they been here?
Could we find the people?

ABEL and EVE
Think about their knowledge;
think about their science!

CAIN
Think about their strength and skill!
Scary they may be, but still
I will never rest until

ALL but ADAM
we have found these strange, bewildering
people who would built a ring of giant stones...

CAIN
All of my life, I think it’s this I’ve been seeking:
we are not alone.

Go Back to the Top


Clash of the Generations

ADAM
The rain will be here soon.
We’d best get back to the shelter of our glen.

CAIN (spoken)
But what about these people...?

ADAM
We will never speak of them again!

EVE (spoken)
Adam—

CAIN (spoken)
Papa, listen to me. For once, listen—

ADAM
Tear it all down, that’s what you want?
Tear down everything we’ve worked to build?
Trust our lives to a bunch of ragged strangers?
You see the promise, Cain, but not the dangers.
You think they’re so wise, you think they’re so skilled,
but you’ve never heard them chanting in their ring of stones,
never seen them dancing here among the bones
of the beasts they’ve killed!

CAIN (spoken)
How do you know what they are?

ADAM (spoken)
Because I’ve been here, Cain. I have seen them.

EVE (spoken)
Adam!

CAIN (spoken)
When were you here?

ADAM
The two of you were babies still, a long, long time ago.

EVE (spoken)
You never told me.

ADAM
It was better not to know.
It would still be better not to know!

CAIN
All these years, you’ve lied to us—

EVE
All these years, you never told, never discussed it!

CAIN
All these years, denied to us our future—

EVE
After all these years, couldn’t you trust me?

ABEL
It’s all right, Cain, please don’t fight, Cain!

EVE
Couldn’t you trust me?

ADAM
Eve, we don’t even know who their Father is.
Would our Father feel betrayed?
What if these are people he never made?

ABEL
Everybody stop fighting!

ADAM
After all these years to lose the chance He might forgive, Eve...

EVE
After all these years, all I see is you are still afraid!
There was a time once, you were so brave, Adam...

ADAM
And look what we got—look where it brought us.
Look at the lesson our bravery taught us.
We are lost in the wilderness.
We belong out here in the wilderness!

CAIN
Well then, stay here forever if that’s how you want to live!
But Abel and I could find comrades and wives
and learn what it is to have hope in our lives
be part of a tribe, part of a clan.
Not just one family, but a family of man!
Come on, Abel.

ADAM
Abel, if you go now, you will never see me again.

ABEL
Oh, Cain, please don’t make me choose.
Either way, it’s more than I can bear to lose.
Either way, it’s ripping out my heart.
This choice is tearing me apart...

CAIN
Is this what it means to be a father?
Crushing the spirit of your children like an egg?
Is that what it means to be a father?
Binding them to you with a chain around the leg?

Go Back to the Top


The Death of Abel

STORYTELLER
In the wasteland

EVE
Abel, my child

STORYTELLER
the land bereft

EVE
You must not die

STORYTELLER
The heart can shatter

EVE
You must not die

STORYTELLER
with a final cleft...

EVE
You must not die

STORYTELLER
And what hope for the future

EVE
You must not die

STORYTELLER
you had left….

EVE
You must not—

STORYTELLER
….is lost in the wilderness.

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The Mark of Cain

FATHER
Cain!
Cain!
The voice of your brother’s blood
cries to me from the ground.
I curse that ground, and I curse you.
Be a fugitive and a vagabond all your wretched life
and should you find a wife, I curse her too.
And all your tainted progeny,

your children’s children’s children

FATHER

Even to the seventh generation!

Let the righteous hear:
the seed of Cain
with guilt and shame is ridden

All concourse with them is forevermore forbidden.
Shun them like the scorpion and shark

And that you may know them
on Cain I set this mark.
The race of Cain must ever bear this mark!

 

Hear: the seed of Cain

with guilt and shame

They are forbidden

Shun them!

The race of Cain

And that you may know them

I set this mark!

The race of Cain must ever bear this mark!

The wild beasts howl and wild winds blow
When the seeds of the tree of knowledge grow
And you know things now you wish you didn't know
In the wasteland... in the wasteland... in the wasteland!

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Children of Eden

EVE
Like this brief day, my light is nearly gone
But through the night, my children, you will go on.
You will know heartache; prayers that don't work
And times of bitter circumstances
But I still believe in second chances.

Children of Eden, where have we left you?
Born to uncertainty, destined for pain
Sins of your parents haunt you and test you
This your inheritance: fire and rain.
Children of Eden, try not to blame us.
We were just human, to error prone.
Children of Eden, will you reclaim us?
You and your children to come
Some day to come home.

STORYTELLERS
Children of Eden, where is our garden?
Where is the innocence we can't regain?

Once eyes are open, must those eyes harden?

We're lost in the wilderness

Must we remain.....

Once our eyes are opened

Must they harden?
Must we be lost in the wilderness?

Oh, my precious children,
if you think of us
Try not to blame us.
We were just human,
to error prone.

ALL
Oh, Children of Eden, you will reclaim us
You and your children to come
Someday you'll come home.