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 ass 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