Hands Held High

Turn my mic up louder,
I got to say something
Lightweights steppin' aside
when we come in

Feel it in your chest,
the syllables get pumping
People on the street then panic
and start running

Words on loose leaf sheet,
complete coming
I jump in my mind,
I summon the rhyme I'm dumping

Healing the blind,
I promise to let the sun in
Sick of the dark ways
we march to the drumming

Jump when they tell us
that they wanna see jumping
Fuck that, I wanna see some fists pumping
List something,
take back what's yours

Say something
that you know they might attack you for
'Cause I'm sick of being treated
like I had before

Like it's stupid
standing for what I'm standing for
Like this war's really
just a different brand of war

Like it doesn't cater to rich
and abandon poor
Like they understand you,
in the back of their jet

When you can't put gas in your tank,
these fuckers
Are laughing their way to the bank,
and cashing their check

Asking you to have the passion
and have some respect
For a leader so nervous
in an obvious way

Stuttering and mumbling
for nightly news to replay
And the rest of the world
watching at the end of the day
In the living room,
laughing like, "What did he say?"


(Amen)

In my living room watching it,
I am not laughing
'Cause when it gets tense,
I know what might happen

The world is cold,
the bold men take action
Have to react or
get blown into fractions

At 10 years old,
it's something to see
Another kid my age
drugged under a Jeep

Taken and bound
and found later under a tree
I wonder if he had thought
the next one could be me

Do you see the soldiers
that are out today?
They brush the dust
from bulletproof vests away

It's ironic,
at times like this you'd pray
But a bomb
blew the mosque up yesterday

There's bombs
on the buses, bikes, roads
Inside your market,
your shops, and your clothes

My dad, he's got a lot of fear,
I know
But enough pride inside
not to let that show

My brother had a book
he would hold with pride
A little red cover
with a broken spine on the back

He hand-wrote a quote inside,
"When the rich wage war,
it's the poor who die"
Meanwhile,
the leader just talks away
Stuttering and mumbling
for nightly news to replay
The rest of the world
watching at the end of the day
Both scared and angry,
like "What did he say?"

(Amen)

With hands held high into the sky so blue
As the ocean opens up to swallow you