Motherland

Where in hell can you go

far from the things that you know

far from the sprawl of concrete

that keeps crawling its way

about 1,000 miles a day?

O, Motherland, cradle me;

close my eyes;

lullaby me to sleep.

Keep me safe;

lie with me;

stay beside me.

Don't go. Don't you go.

O, my five and dime queen,

tell me, what have you seen?

The lust and the avarice,

the bottomless, the cavernous greed?

Is that what you see?

O, Motherland, cradle me;

close my eyes;

lullaby me to sleep.

Keep me safe;

lie with me;

stay beside me.

Don't go. Don't you go.

It's your happiness I want most of all,

and for that I'd do anything at all.

O, mercy me!

Now come on shotgun bride.

What makes me envy your life?

Faceless, nameless, innocent, blameless

and free.

What's that like to be?

O, Motherland, cradle me;

close my eyes;

lullaby me to sleep.

Keep me safe;

lie with me;

stay beside me.

Don't go. Don't you go.

"Motherland," by Natalie Merchant