Cousin Jack

This land is barren and broken.
Scarred like the face of the moon.
Our tongue is no longer spoken,
The towns all around facing ruin.
Will there be work in New Brunswick?
Or will I find gold in the Cape?
If I tunnel way down to Australia,
Oh will I ever escape?
Where there's a mine or a hole in the ground,
That's where I'm heading for, that's where I'm bound.
Look for me under the lode or inside the vein.
Oh where the copper, the clay, where the arsenic and tin,
Run in your blood and get under your skin,
I'm leaving the county behind,
And I'm not coming back,
So follow me down cousin Jack.
The soil was too poor to make Eden,
Granite and the sea left no choice.
Though visions of heaven sustained us,
When John Wesley gave us a voice.
Did Joseph once come to St Michael's Mount?
Two thousand years pass in a dream,
When you're working away in the darkness,
Deep in the heart of the seam.
Where there's a mine or a hole in the ground,
That's where I'm heading for, that's where I'm bound.
Look for me under the lode or inside the vein.
Oh where the copper, the clay, where the arsenic and tin,
Run in your blood and get under your skin,
I'm leaving the county behind,
And I'm not coming back,
So follow me down cousin Jack.
I dream of a bridge, across the Tamar,
It opens us up, to the east.
And in my dreams,
I see the English, living in our houses,
I see the Spanish, fishing in our sea.
Where there's a mine or a hole in the ground,
That's where I'm heading for, that's where I'm bound.
Look for me under the lode or inside the vein.
Oh where the copper, the clay, where the arsenic and tin,
Run in your blood and get under your skin,
I'm leaving the county behind,
And I'm not coming back,
So follow me down cousin Jack. (Come on,)
Follow me down cousin Jack. (Yeah)
Follow me down.