But She Was Not Flying

(album: Algiers - 2015)

I'm going home to see the king
He's gonna take my pain away
I'm gonna see my friends again
If only I can make it in

But there's a lizard
With a human face
He says he's standing
For democracy
And every wealthy man
Has earned his place
As did the undeserving
In their poverty
He told my brother
That he wasn't a man
He broke my sister down
Again and again
His fathers stole
And wrote the laws of the land
And now he flips the coin of power
With all of his friends
Deciding who is fit
To go out and die
And who is black enough
To be left behind
And who will model
Their exceptional lie
And just how many they can
Murder at the borderline

I knew a woman
With a scale in her hand
They bound and gagged her
With the lies of the land
She couldn't tell
What she was measuring
So they tilt the scale
To meet their own personal ends
Saying, "I'll shoot your son
If he's out of line"
"I'll rape your daughters
Underground where I hide"
"And I can murder
Anytime that I like"
"Cause I'm protected
At my left and my right"
"I got a side that says
I'm only a man"
"Another side that puts
The gun in my hand"
"I'll trade your product
Of environment"
"For any alibi for consequence."