Eric Bogle - Mirrors lyrics

Children are born with trust in their eyes it's the first thing that we betray Children are born believing in magic it's the first thing we take away Fill them with doubt instead of magic and fear instead of trust And after awhile, they're just like us On this earth there is a city in a rich green pleasant country Where they k** their children the children of the streets Free enterprise extermination why waste rehabilitation? a bullet is forever It's so final quick and cheap And the despots all wear policemen's badges k** to supplement their wages Earn their bloody bounty with the gun and the club and knife While profit-concious businessmen Upright solid citizens Pay them a cew cruzeiros for every murdered street kids life (But they're children!) They're garbage on the streets (Oh the children!) They're beggars, who*es and theives (Oh pity the children!) Cry pity if you will, There's none on the streets of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil To bless this piece of paradise High on a hill stands Jesus Christ Gazing down with sightless eyes at the daily blasphemy A mocking marble coontradiction arms spread wide in benediction Suffer the little children, suffer them to come to me And the despots cry "amen, amen" while they bow their knees to Bethlehem They spit in the face of humankind Turn our dreams to worthless dust And the future, as it's always done, stares down the barrel of a gun Which once more begs the question, When will the despots come for us? (But they're children!) Have you seen their eyes? (Oh the children!) Hard and wary and street-wise (Oh pity the children!) There are no children here Only old eyes full of hunger and hate and hopeless fear (But they're children!) Abandoned and forsaken (Oh the children!) Useless human flotsam (Oh pity the children!) And pity us as well For in our childrens' eyes We see mirrors of ourselves