New Model Army

Red Earth

New Model Army


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, sring 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 plagne 
And all the beauty tainted and east of Eden cast 

Children walking bare foot 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 nihgt 
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 doors and through the walls and…