[Verse 1]
It's a movie and the whole world is viewing it
And the popcorn is dreams torn, but we're always chewing it
The set design's by God but the costumes' by the devil
And the screenplay is adapted from a book that's embezzled
This is where I grew up
This is where I grew proud
This is where neighbors never say music is too loud
This is where the streets have no name, but they have history
This is loss's victory
Oh my name it ain't nothing; my age it means less
The country I come from could be like the rest
I was taught and brought up there, laws to abide
And the land that I live in has God on its side
I was young; I grew. I could tie my shoe
I was blind, but I knew, that I would always see blue
Blue seas I see through, on the bottom I'll meet you
And when we come up for a breath, would you mind if I kiss you?
Childhood came up for the kiss, but its lips was painted with mist
And the sunny skies came and I missed it
Vanished and windswept
Landed and we slept in the arms of convenience, blanket obedience
Now the Somali-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too was soon laid away
And the names of our warlords
I was made to memorize
With guns in they hands, they say
God's on their side
I had an undying wish to keep from dying
I had an untimely hitch keep me from climbing
But I climbed the hitch itself and I tried flying;
I had an uprising in my soul
The left was fighting the right
And the right was fighting the light
And the light was blind in the night
And the night woke up in tears
When my fingers went to wipe them
They became a poem but to write them
They would have to speak tears in another language;
That would take years
So now as I'm leaving
I'm weary as Hell
The confusion I'm feeling
Ain't no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor:
If God's on your side then
Would you ever need war?