Mirrors Lyrics - Singles - Eric Bogle

"MIRRORS" 

-Eric Bogle 

Children are born with trust in their eyes 

it's the first thing that we betray 

Children are born believing in magic 

it's the first thing we take away 

Fill them with doubt instead of magic 

and fear instead of trust 

And after awhile, they're just like us 

On this earth there is a city 

in a rich green pleasant country 

Where they kill their children 

the children of the streets 

Free enterprise extermination 

why waste rehabilitation? 

a bullet is forever 

It's so final quick and cheap 

And the despots all wear policemen's badges 

Kill to supplement their wages 

Earn their bloody bounty 

with the gun and the club and knife 

While profit-concious businessmen 

Upright solid citizens 

Pay them a cew cruzeiros 

for every murdered street kids life 

(But they're children!) 

They're garbage on the streets 

(Oh the children!) 

They're beggars, whores and theives 

(Oh pity the children!) 

Cry pity if you will, 

There's none on the streets 

of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil 

To bless this piece of paradise 

High on a hill stands Jesus Christ 

Gazing down with sightless eyes 

at the daily blasphemy 

A mocking marble coontradiction 

arms spread wide in benediction 

Suffer the little children, 

suffer them to come to me 

And the despots cry "amen, amen" 

while they bow their knees to Bethlehem 

They spit in the face of humankind 

Turn our dreams to worthless dust 

And the future, as it's always done, 

stares down the barrel of a gun 

Which once more begs the question, 

When will the despots come for us? 

(But they're children!) 

Have you seen their eyes? 

(Oh the children!) 

Hard and wary and street-wise 

(Oh pity the children!) 

There are no children here 

Only old eyes full of hunger 

and hate and hopeless fear 

(But they're children!) 

Abandoned and forsaken 

(Oh the children!) 

Useless human flotsam 

(Oh pity the children!) 

And pity us as well 

For in our childrens' eyes 

We see mirrors of ourselves