Syria (Rumors of War)

He sang a tune or two in a one man band

Then hopped a train to a distant and nameless land

And in a boxcar he heard someone say,

‘You can’t take back what you never gave away’

There are rumors of war; there are holes in the sky

The dead line the roads but no one hears them cry

The living are throwing stones into an empty well.

Their houses are bare; they have nothing left to sell.

I hum along to a song that I know and understand

As I trudge toward that distant and nameless land

And in the darkness I hear someone say,

‘You can’t take back what you never gave away’