homeland

well

i jumped so high

knocked the table over

thought i saw a ghost

come out of the clover

she lived in this house

forty odd years or so

she was buried in the back

with the english and the natives

slaughtered like sheep

women and babies

a lot of blood and tears

three hundred years ago

it's like they're caught up in the trees

in the webs of spiders

spun out of leaves

ghostly riders

lookin' for a trail

to find their way back home

but there's nothing back there or tomorrow

no place they can put their sorrow

heavy as death

cold as a broken stone

and i call this place my homeland

and i claim this land i own

but it belongs to another people

they possess it in their bones

well

i can hear them in the night

like a hundred televisions

hummin' down low beneath the subdivisions

all they really want is if we can hear 'em now

they been troublin' this plain

looking for attention

making crazy tracks

they need an intervention

all they really want

is to get back home somehow

so build up a fire

say a little prayer

cook a little meat

pull 'em up a chair

and offer them a plate

maybe we can all find peace

you can't bury anything

men or nations

old memories

old vibrations

the pain doesn't stop just because the killing ceased

and i call this place my homeland

and i claim this land i own

it belongs to another people

they possess it in their bones

well

i jumped so high

straight up off the bedsheet

nightmare sky

bloody with the red heat

started to shake

cause i couldn't find my way back home

well

i landed in the ditch

landed in the gutter

landed in arms of my long lost mother

cryin' like a child

while the bayou pierre groaned

and i call this place my homeland

and i love this land i own

it belongs to another people

they possess it in their bones

yeah

i call this place my homeland

and i claim this land i own

but it belongs to another people

they possess it in their bones