Memorial - Moss Icon

Mothers would awake to feed their children

Our brothers would awake to mend their nets and sails

Mothers would awake to feed their children

Our brothers would awake to mend their nets and sails

They had the boundless light of a new day dawning

And a burning living driving will

They had the light of a boundless new day dawning

They had a burning living driving will

Meanwhile the old men sit on the top of a hill

Waiting through your legislation

Wading;

trudging, through your debate

About whether or not to send

Another hundred thousand young men and women

Off

Into the hurricane

No taxation without representation

We will not pay a toll in blood

The old men were sitting on top of the hill

While the younger

Ushered a place for both down by the creek

Singing they are following

Cold and fishing to their marked graves

The old men sit on top of the hill

Of 58,000

Walking

Walking across the plain I am descending

Six feet underground

You send me here

Every name

Every name

Upon this wall

You send me here

Six feet under

Why don’t you take a short walk

Walk out of your oval office

Walk out of the state house

Take a short walk across the lawn

And descend to six feet under and read those names

And you’re debating, still debating whether or not to send me here

You’re debating, you’re debating whether or not to send more over there

Six feet under

You really do carry my weight

Bats grazing

In the lighted sky above our houses

Lightning bugs rising higher and higher

Bats grazing in the sky

In the night sky above our houses

Lightning bugs rising higher and higher

As the sun leaves behind

As the sun leaves behind

This valley

This waking valley song

A memorial

Oh, six feet to be under you really did

Carry my weight

The earth, I confess, is not made to our unhappy state

And you’re still debating

Debate

Debate

What is this?

A voice in his head

A voice comes quick and it fades on

It is this waking valley song

Archaic and bent with time

It is this memory

It is his memory