And I saw that I was blessed
I saw that it was built on the backs
of the poor and the oppressed
I saw this end less spinning
Of ending up back at the beginning
Of headlong races to where we sat
But oh, the places we could go
And I was tired and defeated
With nothing turned out as I thought
Then I only get what I always got
I saw the masses yawning stolen breaths
That they might breathe the next
and half -mast cigarettes
The same lives, the same pain
Lay like embers in the rain
I saw all things invisible that bind me
When Lady Luck was smiling
It was that the guy behind me
Green and brown girls of the sea
Take me, but don't ever wake me
Why are you living in chains?
Why are you living in chains?
And I saw my supposed enemy
But I looked exactly like him
So I got out and learned how to swim
I saw the sorrow of the centuries
And saw first smoke from the stacks
I saw bullets being buried
I saw the poetry of the prophet
But they wallpapered over it, they did
The same words written years ago
on the back of my eyelids
And bodies washing in from the sea
Why are you living in chains?
You could change it so bad
Why are you living in chains?
You wanna be free, you wanna be free
why are you living in chains?
You want to be free, you want to be free
While you're living in chains
You want to be free, you want to be free
while you're living in chains
You wanna be free, you wanna be free,
why are you living in shame?
You wanna be free, you wanna be free,
4.8
