Power in a boardroom

Oil on a map

Lines drawn with a fountain pen

Turned into a trap

Envy in a handshake

Greed in a smile

One signature later

They’re marching single file

And the mothers cry at fresh graves

Calling names that never answer

Holding jackets

Holding photos

As the soil turns to cancer

History stamps another page

In a language written in veins

Cold ambitions in warm offices

Write boys into these chains

Gold under mountains

Grain in a field

All those quiet riches

Demanding a shield

Whose narrow hunger

Whose swollen pride

Turns a rumor in the palace

To a fire worldwide

And the mothers cry at fresh graves

Calling names that never answer

Holding jackets

Holding photos

As the soil turns to cancer

History stamps another page

In a language written in veins

Cold ambitions in warm offices

Write boys into these chains

Generals leaning over maps

Coffee on the table

Steady hands

Circles

Arrows

Dates and stats

"They’ll hold the line

They’ll understand"

But downwind of the thunder

A schoolyard lies in shards

A birthday cake gone stale

On a kitchen counter scarred

And the mothers cry at fresh graves

Calling names that never answer

Tracing letters on the headstones

Till their fingers splinter

Fracture

History stamps another page

But the ink runs in the rain

All these reasons for the outbreak

Meet the same red stain