Motherland Lyrics - Retrospective 1995-2005 - Natalie Merchant

Where in the hell can you go 

Far from the things that you know 

Far from the sprawl of concrete that keeps Crawling its way about 1,000 miles a day? 

Take one last look behind, 

Commit this to memory and mind. 

Don't miss this wasteland, 

This terrible place 

When you leave 

Keep your heart off your sleeve 

Motherland cradle me, close my eyes, 

Lullaby me to sleep 

Keep me safe, lie with me, 

Stay beside me don't go 

Don't you go 

Oh, my five and dime queen 

Tell me what have you seen? 

The lust and the avarice, 

The bottomless, Cavernous greed, 

Is that what you see? 

[Chorus] 

Motherland cradle me, close my eyes, 

Lullaby me to sleep. 

Keep me safe, lie with me, 

Stay beside me don't go 

It's your happiness I want most of all 

And for that I'd do anything at all, 

Oh mercy me! 

If you want the best of it 

Or the most of all, if there's anything 

I can do at all 

Now come on shot gun bride 

What makes me envy your life? 

Faceless, nameless, innocent, 

Blameless and free, 

What's that like to be? 

[Chorus] 

Don't go