Cry Your Tears
By John Trudell
Now you want us
To cry your tears for you
After we’ve already bled for you
Already been dead to you
Now you want us
To cry your tears for you
Chapters of a democracy story
Descendants of genocide
Twelve score and more years ago
We went from being the majority
To being the smallest minority
Now you want us
To cry your tears for you
We saw that emptying
Early morning skyline
Back through that horizon
Duck Valley 1979, Wounded Knee
Sand Creek, that Trail of Tears
Exactly how did our land
Become your country
Now you want us
To cry your tears for you
While we’re still crying tears of our own
With your past as your future
That industrial ruling class
Using religion as a weapon
Distilling love into hate
Pointing fingers and name calling evil
Sacrificing lives and blood
Making the innocent the new virgins
Offering to the gods of profit
Now you want us
To cry your tears for you
In the homeland security
Pretending corporate corruption
Isn’t economic terrorism
Money talks while the government listens
Compiling files on ones who think different
Conditioning an acceptance of debt
And not to expect the truth
So get used to hearing the lie
Now you want us
To cry your tears for you
Misusing the beauty
Turning freedom into a killing machine
Mass murdering the environment
Weaponizing the psychology of fear
And pushing material addiction with
A substitution of rules faking the law
The bill of rights becomes collateral damage
Making the constitution another broken treaty
Now you want us
To cry your tears for you
Way this story is unfolding
We may end up crying together
As in crying at the same time
But we’re short on tears to cry for you
With all these tears to cry of our own
Now you want us
To cry your tears for you
Copyright Credit: John Trudell, "Cry Your Tears" from Lines from a Mined Mind. Copyright © 2008 by John Trudell. Reprinted by permission of Fulcrum Publishing.