Red Earth

The rock is made of diamond, the rivers wash with gold

The sun beats down in rhythm, pounding on our reason

Pounding on our reason, ringing in our skulls

Sometimes this land looks empty – it plays so many tricks on you

The soil of dried blood – sown with seed of people

Overrun with armies that grow out of the earth

They flow down from the mountains, spring out of the ground

The shacks they all have numbers

The dirt tracks run in straight lines

Vanity and uselessness, the minds of prison guards

Praying on a Sunday, dressed up in our finest

Any god is welcome – any god that will come

To give back what was taken, take back what was given

Blood and death and sacrifice, the curse of wasting plague

And all the beauty tainted and east of Eden cast

Children walking barefoot in the golden dust

Boys with blinding eyes, perfect skin and Bible names

Machetes and AKs, perfect skin and Bible names

Machetes and AKs, perfect skin and Bible names

Take back what was taken, take back what was taken

Take back what was taken, machetes and AKs

All the waiting, all the walking all the miles

All the working in the fields and in the mines

In the orchards of the rulers

Bring us cure, bring us deliverance from evil

From the sins of all the fathers

Bring us water, bring us vengeance, bring us power

Catch a sound in the dead of the night

The clicked triggers of security lights

By the pool where the shadows stir ... silent, silent

Through the scented garden moving in

By the waving of the skeleton trees ... closer and closer

And through the walls and through the doors