One Foot Before the Other
Frank Turner Lyrics

On the very day I die
On my last day of existence

The very last of my desires
The final thing I want

Is that you take my broken body
Please have my damaged remains

And commit it to the fire
Burn it to ash

And then when the fire is finished
After the flames have died down

Scrape the ashes in a tin
Collect the remains in a container

Take them down to London's drinking reservoirs
Bring the container to water source in the city of London

And throw them in
Dispose of them in the liquid

And then specks infinitesimal of my mortal remains
Tiny particles of my physical self

Will slide down seven million throats and into seven million veins
They'll enter the bloodstream of seven million people

And I will creep through their capillaries to the marrow of their bones
I'll spread throughout their bodies, reaching even their bone marrow

And they will wake to bright new mornings and then wordlessly they'll know
Those people will experience new days and subconsciously feel my presence

That I remain
That I still exist

I am remembered
People won't forget about me

So these seven million innocents
These seven million people

They will have me in their blood
I'll be part of them

And when they die they'll burn their bodies
They'll also be cremated

Or be buried in the mud
Or they'll decompose in the soil

And I will spread through streams and rivers like a virus through a host
My particles will move through waterways like an infection in a person

From the hamlets to the cities from the rivers to the coast
From the smallest settlements to the biggest cities and all the water around them

And from there into the channel across the great Atlantic Ocean
My particles will travel via water currents and amalgamate in the Atlantic Ocean

And ever onwards to the new world
My particles will spread to the Americas

Through the waters gentle motions
Carried by the currents

Until parts of me are part of every land mass every sea
I'll be spread all over the world

In the rain, up on your crops and in the very air you breath
In the water falling from the sky, on your plants, and the air you inhale

I'm not convinced of the existence of these things that don't exist
I don't believe in things that aren't real

Yeah by Jewish boys with big ideas and scratches on their wrists
Or by those with religious ideas, marked by self-harm

By a loving or a vengeful God
Whether there's a benevolent or malicious deity

Or one who condescends
Or someone who belittles

Who'll wash his hands down in the mire among the misery of men
Who'll ignore humanity in their suffering.

Or by ever turning circles hanging timeless in the sky
Or by celestial bodies in orbit

Like a dream catcher distracting from the fact you're gonna die
Like an object that distracts from the reality of mortality

But I place one foot before the other
I keep moving forward

Confident because
Because I'm certain

I know that everything we are right now is everything that was
That everything that exists now is based on what came before

That Watt Tyler, Woody Guthrie, Dostoevsky and Davy Jones
Those people were integral parts of history

Are all dissolved into the ether and have crept into my bones
Their influence is imprinted in the universe, and thus in me

And all the cells in all the lines upon the backs of both my hands
All the atoms that make up my physical being

Were once carved into the details of two feet upon the sand
Emanate from the same source as every other living creature.

We remain
We still exist

We are remembered
We won't be forgotten

And all the things we love
The people and objects we cherish

Will be washed away in the rain
Will eventually disappear over time

We remain
We still exist