Disaster

We heard disaster creeping
When the newborn baby cried.
And the way your generation fled
From pain and genocide.
We heard it in the weeping
Of women with sons and lovers lost.
We heard it in the way they said,
"In life and war there comes a cost"

In the stress of growing poverty,
Smoke stacks that kill our air,
To the cries of people dying
From diseases and despair.

He heard disaster creeping
When he loaded his gun for war.
In the silence of a desert,
Where his heart was growing sore.

We're worried about our welfare,
About our oil and our cars.
The directions to and from Iraq,
The new shuttle track to Mars.

We're so busy with the far and few
That we forgot about our nation.
Now in the midst of the commotion,
You can hear the implication.
Can you hear it gently seeping,
Through the sleeping and the weeping,
Can't you hear disaster creeping?