refugee fields on the untended farmland
all overwhelmed by new dispossessed thousands
like the devastation in the wake of a flood tide
uprooted and flung up the banks of the shoreline
lined row on row, small tents and box houses
absorbing the blow of our national losses
it was decades ago when we profaned our promise
with the elevation of the worst thieves among us
and here are your fruits, american harvest
and here are your used and here are your heartless
and all your nations plagued by one more sign
of the desolation of the western shoreline
and there's no sleep when the sirens are howlin
no victory defending conquered houses
and there's no need to feign your disbelief at our destination

no song is sung in the dither of noises
no common tongue for the disparate voices
the order undone, undid by the nameless
insatiable ones, who stroll away blameless
who lit the fuse and sold us the fallout
who tightened the screws till we barely could crawl out
who dared us to sue after carefully crafting the legislation
and here is your toll, american commerce
your temples of gold where we worshipped like converts
didn't save anyone, and we're beggin for more time
for the restoration of the western shoreline
the seeds were sowed, hard labor was ordered
we carried that load and thought we'd be rewarded
somewhere down the road, but our number ain't even
in their equation

the palm is uncurled, the debt still unreckoned
the noose is unfurled, the hangman's been beckoned
the tilt of the world still bends toward injustice
and the trap still ensnares those desperate to trust in it
who live and dwell where the wild wolves are gathered
who fight like hell for the last rung on the ladder
whose prison cell has no window or fountain
who learn all too well who counts and who's countin
who stare at the ground, averting their eyes
who get beaten down for daring to rise
from their lowly stations, who crawl back inside
the holes they came from, but their day will come
for one day the blood will cut through the cancer
and the rivers will run and the guilty will answer
for the things that they've done, transgressions and war crimes,
at the restoration, the restoration 
justice comes
justice comes
oh freedom
oh freedom