Chains

   You slink down the halls, through the cinderblock walls
   and the kids in this old public school
   sentenced inside this concrete and barbed-wire for a crime that you
   didn't even do
   were you surprised to find peril inside?  do you do what's expected of you?
   don't deny it isn't true
   
   On the outside on the street there are girls selling meat, there are boys
   spilling blood
   there's an old man with a book and he says that he's looking for help
   from above
   can't expect help, I've been told, from the one who is holding the end of
   the gun
   and so you run but you dream that there will come a day when
   
   You break from these chains, break from these chains
   is there something that you want to know?
   out of this maze, into the rain.  may it wash away all this below
   let there be floods may they wash all this carnage away
   is there something that you want to know?
   
   She nests in the slums living off of the crums that they toss out on the
   welfare line
   at twenty-six she's a mom with four kids who's fathers are all doing time
   she's got it down, she tells herself now.  when she looks at her daughter
   sometimes - prays she don't grow up like mom
   
   Off on the other side of town there's a man working 'round fifteen hours
   a day
   wishes that he could relax but the thing is the taxman takes half of
   his pay
   and the money they get's just to make the world better, or anyway that's
   what they say
   but for is part he'd prefer that they just leave it be
   
   Out of these chains, out of these chains
   can you feel the weight of the plow
   your muscles strain, you feel betrayed
   when you see that the seeds that you've sown
   turned out to be weeds that consume all the flower's you've grown
   is there something you still want to know?
   
   Samson call out the first name of your maker
   tear down the pillars surrounding the slave yard
   crushing the ones who have bound you and blinded you, beaten you till
   you were tame
   summon the strength to rise up from the bed where you've lain
   
   I puncture my skin push the poison on in.  it surrounds me in orgasmic
   veils
   if they could see me perhaps they'd help me out by throwing my ass in a
   jail
   still I've been told it's the one who is holding the gun who is destined
   to fail
   but for a while I'm believing that I've found a way
   
   Out of these chains, out of these chains
   that have bound my to this bed of stone
   killing my pain, keeping me tame
   so I don't turn and strike from below
   and you'll condemn me you'll tell me I've gone quite insane
   still you're the same, don't you know
   how much more do you need to be shown?
   "sit down, relax, it's best if you don't struggle" they say
Muller's World

Chains
