Redgum - Blood upon the Rain lyrics

I nurse my mother in a mudbrick room She weaves her days on a blanket loom I face conscription when I reach eighteen Old men starve and widows sigh Behind the fences corn grows high Every night there's a disco For the pimps and marketeers Fat landowners know no shame Trade Swiss francs and quaff champagne In the hills they grow c**aine For the dealers from the north There's no grave for heroes here Some speak out and conquer fear Every week more disappear There's blood upon the rain Pall Mall softpacks, American guns Government troops bask in the sun Drawing straws for the who*es from the shanty town Beneath the truncheons you bow and scrape You learn to hustle, you learn to hate Bolt the doors when the squads patrol And terror stalks the night. Suffer my country, children weep So much pain and oh so deep The people sow and the fascists reap And conscience has no name A new beginning or a hangman's rope While caution slept, our courage woke We took up arms and we took up hope There's blood upon the rain. Clutch your life in each short breath Another skirmish, a nameless d**h The tracks are mined and there's snipers in the trees The mountain mists hide for years Our silent power, our faith and tears The valley streams are poisoned And the gunships scour the plains. co*k your rifle, mumble prayers Lying in ambush, wet and scared Far from towns were dull eyes stare And tequila loosens tongues Feel the strength, feel the fire A nation caged behind barbed wire A million hearts with one desire There's blood upon the rain Companeros, eyes that shine Close as brothers, we pa** the wine The future's ours, seize the time And fan the rising flame k** the beast and life begins Silently we spread our wings If harvests fall, we reap the wind There's blood upon the rain