Mirrors lyrics

`MIRRORS`

-Eric Bogle



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 kill 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

Kill 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, whores 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