Winter In America

--Gil Scott-Heron,
from the album "Winter in America", released in 1974.

From the Indians who welcomed the pilgrims
To the buffalo who once ruled the plains
Like the vultures circling beneath the dark clouds
Looking for the rain,
Looking for the rain.
Like the cities that stagger on the coastline
In a nation that just can’t stand much more...
Like the forest buried beneath the highway,
Never had a chance to grow,
Never had a chance to grow.

And now it’s winter,
Winter in America,
And all of our healers have been killed
Or betrayed...
Now it’s winter,
Winter in America
And nobody's fighting
Cause -
Nobody knows what to say.

The Constitution, that noble piece of paper...
A free society struggled but it died in vain.
And now democracy is ragtime on the corner,
Hoping for some rain,
Hoping for some rain.
And I see the robins perched in barren treetops
Watching last ditch racists march across the floor
Just like the peace sign that vanished in our dreams
Never had a chance to grow,
Never had a chance to grow.

And now it’s winter,
Winter in America.
And all of our healers have been killed
Or betrayed...
And now it’s winter
Winter in America
And nobody's fighting
Cause -
Nobody knows what to say;
Ain’t nobody fighting,
Cause -
Nobody knows what to say.
Ain’t nobody fighting,
Cause -
Nobody knows what to say.