[Verse 1]

A revolving wheel of metal chairs
Hung on chains, squealing
Four little children flying out
A blind man sings in Arabic

[Chorus 1]

Hey little children don’t disappear (I heard it was twenty-eight thousand)
Lost upon a revolving wheel (I heard it was twenty-eight thousand)

[Verse 2]

Now you see them, now you don’t
Children vanish ‘hind vehicle
Now you see them, now you don’t
Faces, limbs, a bouncing skull

[Chorus 2]

Hey little children don’t disappear (I heard it was twenty-eight thousand)
All that’s left after a year (I heard it was twenty-eight thousand)
A faded face, the trace of an ear (I heard it was twenty-eight thousand)

[Verse 3]

A tableau of the missing
Tied to the government building
Eight-thousand sun-bleached photographs
Faded with the roses

[Chorus 3]

Hey little children don’t disappear (I heard it was twenty-eight thousand)
Lost upon a revolving wheel (I heard it was twenty-eight thousand)
All that’s left after a year (I heard it was twenty-eight thousand)
A faded face, the trace of an ear (I heard it was twenty-eight thousand)

And watch them fade out, and watch them fade out, and watch them fade out
And watch them fade out, and watch them fade out, and watch them fade out
And watch them fade out, and watch them fade out, and watch them fade out
And watch them fade out, and watch them fade out, and watch them fade out
And watch them fade out, and watch them fade out, and watch them fade out
And watch them fade out, and watch them fade out, and watch them fade out
And watch them fade out, and watch them fade out, and watch them fade out
And watch them fade out

(Verse 1)

I was walking through the National Mall
Thinking about medicinals, how they used to grow there
When the ground was a marshland
Undisturbed by human hands, and I heard their voices

(Chorus 1)

The sumac said, “We are always here”
The witch hazel, “We are always here”
The sassafras, “We are always here”
The bluestem grasses always here

(Verse 2)

I looked about, what did I see?
Medicinals growin’ around me, rising from the gravel
Sumac and the witch hazel
Come to soothe our pain, our souls, come to soothe our troubles

(Chorus 2)

The sumac said, “We are always here”
The witch hazel, “We are always here”
The sassafras, “We are always here”
The bluestem grasses always here

(Outro)

But do you see that woman, sitting in the wheelchair?
With her Redskins cap on backwards, what’s that she’s singing?
As from inside a paper wrapper, she sips from a bottle
A new painkiller, for the native people

[C/G]Oh my Anaco-[C/G]—stia
[C/G]Do not sigh, do not[C/G] weep
Beneath the [C/G]overpass
Your savior’s [C/G]waiting patient[C/G]ly

[Verse 2]

[C/G]Walking on the wa-[C/G]—ter
[C/G]Flowing with the poi[C/G]–sons
From the [C/G]naval yards
He’s talking [C/G]to the broken re[C/G]eds

[Chorus 1]

Saying, what will become of us?
What will become of us? Oh
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water

[Verse 3]

A small red sunblish wait for night
Trails away like a tail light
Is that Jesus on the water?
Talking to the fallen trees?

[Chorus 2]

Saying, what will become of us?
What will become of us? Oh
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water

[Outro – no chords)

Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water
Wade in the water, God’s gonna trouble the water

[Verse 1]

Fifteen keys, fifteen keys hang on a chain
The chain is joined, the chain is joined and forms a ring
The ring is in, the ring is in a woman’s hand
She’s walking on, she’s walking on the dusty ground

[Chorus 1]

The dusty ground’s a dead-end track
The neighbors won’t be coming back
Fifteen gardens overgrown
Fifteen houses falling down

[Verse 2]


The woman’s old, the woman’s old and dressed in black
She keeps her hands, she keeps her hands behind her back
Imagine what, imagine what her eyes have seen
We ask but she, we ask but she won’t let us in

[Chorus 2]

A key so simple and so small
How can it mean no chance at all?
A key, a promise, or a wish
How can it mean such hopelessness?

“A circle is broken”, she says
“A circle is broken”, she says

[Verse 1]

This is the Ministry, Of Defence
Stairs and walls are, all that’s left
Mortar holes let, through the air
Kids do the same thing, everywhere

[Chorus 1]

They’ve sprayed graffiti, in Arabic
And balanced sticks, in human sht

[Verse 2]

This is the ministry, of remains
Fizzy drinks, cans, and magazines

[Chorus 2]

Broken glass, a white jawbone
Syringes, razors, a plastic spoon
Human hair, a kitchen knife
And a ghost of a girl, who runs and hides
Scratched in the wall in, biro pen
This is how the, world will end

[Sax Solo]

[Verse 3]

There’s the bus depot, to the right
Levelled like a, a building site

[Chorus 3]

Those are the children’s, cries from the dark
These are the words, writ under the arch
Scratched in the wall, in biro pen
This is how the, world will end

A restlessness took hold my brain, and questions I could not hold back
An orange monkey on a chain, on a bleak uneven track
Told me that to understand, you must travel back in time
I took a plane to a foreign land, and said, “I’ll write down what I find”
Ah-ah ah, ah-ah ah

(Verse 2)

Beneath a mountain’s jagged shelves, cloaked with snow and shadows sheer
Plates tipped up upon themselves, the pain of fifty million years
And mules and goats were running wild, a happy chaos carried on
And old men and the young boys smiled, and worked until the day was gone
Ah-ah ah, ah-ah ah

(Verse 3)

The packs of sandy-coloured dogs, walked streets that looked like building sites
But piles of rocks and dust and smog, could not block out a different light
When I returned I ran to meet, the monkey but his face had changed
He stood before me on two feet, the track was now a motorway
Ah-ah ah, ah-ah ah
Ah-ah ah, ah-ah ah

You see them sitting, in the rain, as the sky is darkening
Three lines of traffic, are edging past, the ministry of social affairs
At a junction, on the ground, an amputee and a pregnant hound
Sit by the young men, with withered arms, as if death had already passed

(Part 2)

Through every alley,[A#/D] way and clenched, a million beggar’s silhouettes
Near where the money,[A#/D] changers sit, by their locked glass cabinets
What has happened,[A#/D] let go and ask, the ministry of social affairs
Near where the money,[A#/D] changers sit, by their locked glass cabinets

(Part 3)

That’s what they want, oh yeah, money honey
That’s what they want, oh yeah, money honey
That’s what they want, oh yeah, money honey
That’s what they want, oh yeah, money honey
That’s what they want, oh yeah, money honey
That’s what they want, oh yeah, money honey

[Verse 1]

Here’s the Hope Six Demolition Project, stretching down to Benning Road
A well-known ‘pathway of death’, at least that’s what I’m told
And here’s the one sit-down restaurant, in Ward Seven, nice
Okay now this is just drug town, just zombies but that’s just life

[Chorus 1]

In the community of hope
The community of hope
The community of hope
The community of hope, hope, hope, hope

[Verse 2]

Here’s the highway to death and destruction, South Capitol is its name
And the school just looks like a sht-hole, does that look like a nice place?
Here’s the old mental institution, now the Homeland Security Base
And here’s God’s Deliverance Center, a deli called M.L.K

[Chorus 2]

In the community of hope
The community of hope
The community of hope
The community of hope, hope, hope, hope

They’re gonna put a Walmart here, they’re gonna put a Walmart here
They’re gonna put a Walmart here, they’re gonna put a Walmart here
They’re gonna put a Walmart here, they’re gonna put a Walmart here
They’re gonna put a Walmart here, they’re gonna put a Walmart here