From the recording RISE UP!
Lyrics
We bombed Nagasaki and Hiroshima
Now that radiation is coming straight for us
Dead fish wash up on the shore
Now it ain’t so clear who’s losing the war
Well, the health officials say everything is fine
But I know that a pacifier won’t stop a baby’s cry
Because eventually that baby learns to talk
And the future will tell us exactly who lost
The day of the tsunami I was flying through space
Over the Atlantic I felt safe above the waves
I trusted the pilot, I trusted the machine
And we all know just how dangerous faith can be
Faith will build a tower and faith will knock it down
Faith will send three ships the whole world around
Faith in holy water can save a life
But eventually everything dies
When I woke up we were over Pakistan
And the snow on the mountains was cleaner than my hands
I wanted to dive into that great shining sea
Bathe in the light like the sweat of a lover’s white sheet
No one will tell us how bad it was -
How bad it still is - but I have an idea because
My hands are only as clean as the water with which I wash
I can scrub until I bleed still some stains just won’t come off
On the West coast we interned the Japanese
We say it as if we were helping them earn a degree
My textbooks describe in great detail what the Germans did
If you attempt genocide you’d better be prepared to win
The Indians were never Indians but it made no difference
They had what we wanted and so did the Africans
So we took and we took and still we take some more
Nothing pays as good as winning a war
But freedom isn’t something you can buy or sell
And even these oil men can’t afford themselves
Nor the borders they built that will eventually fall
When the earth quakes the only line that remains is the fault
We bombed Nagasaki and Hiroshima
We say we had to do it to end the war
But I know we’re just the biggest bully of the sandbox
Now the tide’s coming in and we’re stranded with pockets full of rocks
Oh, the tide’s coming in...
© Laura Katherine Meyer, 2014.