They caught the last poor man on a poor man's vacation
they cuffed him and they confiscated his stuff
and they dragged his black $$# down to the station

and said "ok the streets are safe now.
all your pretty white children can come out to see spot run
and they came out of their houses and they looked around

but they didn't see no one.

and my country tis of thee

to take swings at each other on talk show tv
why don't you just go ahead and turn off the sun
'cause we'll never live long enough to

undo everything they've done to you
undo everything they've done to you


and above 96th street,
they're handing out smallpox blankets
so people don't freeze

the old dogs they got a new trick
it's called criminalize the symptoms
while you spread the disease

i hold on hard to something
between my teeth when i'm sleeping
and i wake up and my jaw aches

and the earth is full of earthquakes

and my country tis of thee

to take shots at each other on prime time tv
why don't you just go ahead and turn off the sun
'cause we'll never live long enough to

undo everything they've done to you
undo everything they've done to you


they caught the last poor man
flying away in a shiny red cape
and they brought him down to the station

and they said "boy you should know better
than to try and escape"
and i ran away with the circus

'cause there's still some honest work left for bearded
ladies
but it's not the same goin' town to town

since they put everyone in jail 'cept
the cleavers and the bradys


and my country tis of thee
to take swings at each other on talk show tv
why don't you just go ahead and turn off the sun

'cause we'll never live long enough to
undo everything they've done to you
undo everything they've done to you