I have a song which hasn't been mentioned yet. Folk-singer/ethinic singer Lila Downs sings traditional songs from south of the US border, and writes her own. This one is haunting, the affects of war. Any errors in transcription are mine.


Smoke (Acteal)
[Lila Downs, Paul Cohen]

Chorus:
How dark is the smoke that falls from the sky
and soaked in our blood are the feathers of time.
How dark is the smoke that falls from the sky
And soaked in our blood are the feathers of time.

More women and children were killed on that night
More than they could count when they threw 'em in trucks
Some children were kneeling the saints were all calm
Machetes and gunshots reveal all the blood
Oh great cave of smoke, oh children of stones
What beautiful birth, so short is your [robe]
The papers recounted the story we know
yet silence is deep as the hundreds of souls
And the hundreds of hopes of our people

Chorus

Now every one's waiting and hoping for justice
but will there be goodness where men kill their own?
Our wise people say that the mouth of the earth
Has swallowed her fruit, but the eagle and snake
Will stand for the truth, when the mother of corn has spoken
Oh axe of our fire bring justice to life
For we know that power was once sacrifice
And it was sacrifice and it was sacrifice
Of our people.

Chorus

Copyright © 2001; Narada Productions, Inc.