There's a boy on some street corner With a bullet in his brain There's a finger on a trigger There' a race that's gone insane There's a woman lying bleeding In the cold and lonely rain And there's a son I have to raise to be a man There's a black and bruising headline On a paper seller's stand There's a red and dripping hammer In a coarse and callous hand There's a dog alive and burning There's a child that's in command And there's a son I have to raise to be a man So won't you try to give us something good today? Our minds are shrinking in and closing down If you throw us in the sea of our despair today Then the only chance of peace will be to drown There's a lust for pain and horror There's a death machine that purrs There's a road of screaming terror And I've walked that road for years And once I walked it smiling Now, I'm crawling it in tears And there's a son I have to raise to be a man Black September, Black October Black November mark the time And each day is one of mourning For the victims of the crime And a happy song is playing But the voice can only mime And there's a son I have to raise to be a man There's a son I have to raise to be a man There are sons we have to raise to be a man