Waiting for the Rain

My father turned his head and said to me
I've heard strange tales of white horses in the sea
I shook my head and silently replied
I had two horses, now both of them have died
My farm produces no more grain
I'm sitting waiting for the rain

I woke up with the dawn and left my home
Walked ten miles to the sacrificial stone
The sun it just beat mercilessly down
Tearing great cracks in the grey and crumbling ground
And bloodstains faded by the heat
Appeared like spectres at my feet
My sheep and goats are dead or lame
I'm sitting waiting for the rain

And please tell us what's it to be
We've tried all the tricks of your technology
Your dam it will starve us, you've got us all planned
For an old shanty town many miles from this land
We've tried rockets in the sky
But our once fertile land is dry

And you tell us to pack up all our homes onto our mules
Make our way across the desert to this hell you've built for fools
This is our home
Dry and bleached now like a bone
And to this land we gave our name
You took our river now we're waiting for the rain

Yesterday there came a bureaucrat
From the United Nations on my very floor he sat
I told him of my family and my line
Who'd lived in this valley since the very dawn of time
When the river was our blood
And our only fear was flood

He told me that he'd noted all I said
Then off into the heavens in his helicopter sped
Meantime all the tourists on the coast
Are drinking up our water while they leave our lands to roast
And all the cash that leaves their hands
Is never spent upon these lands
And our own president is seen
In a brand-new bullet-proof limousine

And the kids of the country are gone
To make easy money in the streets of the town
They once worked the plough and attended their chores
But now they are soldiers and gamblers and whores
And they say we should be more civilised
They say we ought to open up our eyes

And they tell us to pack up all our homes onto our mules
Make our way across the desert to this hell they've built for fools
This is our home
Dry and bleached now like a bone
And to this land we gave our name
You took our river now we're waiting for the rain
Yes we're waiting for the rain
Yes we're waiting for the rain
Yes we're waiting for the rain

Learn more about this author, Pete Willow.
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