Every fifteen minutes somewhere In a burnt out village somewhere There'll be a flash against the sky Another homeless farmer somewhere Stumbles on a mine And for every one survivor two will die
Pastures of plenty now are sown with destruction Growing only uncertainty and fear Lethal reminders of a never ending war Taking lifetimes of misery to clear
For the mines have been planted like Bad seed in the ground Deadly silent sentinels that wait without a sound The legacy of conflict indiscriminate and wild And they know no distinction Be it soldier be it child So scream your disapproval with every angry breath And fight to put an end to all these Gardens of death
Who will remove them when the fighting is over What could the price of peace be worth How can we talk of turning swords into ploughshares When countless million mines infest the earth Young fingers playing find them bright and attractive Made of plastic like a friendly coloured toy Another generation learns to live without a limb For these are the tactics they employ
For the mines have been planted like Bad seed in the ground Deadly silent sentinels that wait without a sound The legacy of conflict indiscriminate and wild And they know no distinction Be it soldier mother child So scream your disapproval with every angry breath And fight to put an end to all these Gardens of death
Who are the companies that profit from this slaughter Who are the people they employ What drives a person to invent a smarter way Of making more efficient methods to destroy Who are the countries now that still refuse to ban them But wear their good intentions like a mask Who are the parties in this shameless pollution These are the questions we must ask
For the mines are still planted In their millions every year Barely detectable impossible to clear Sprayed across the countryside landing where they will Denying future access always waiting for the kill So scream your disapproval with every angry breath So the world can put an end to all these Gardens of death
Every fifteen minutes somewhere Every fifteen minutes somewhere Every fifteen minutes
Notes
Many thanks to Bernard Carney for permission to add this song to the Union Songs collection.
This song won the West Australian Music industry songwriting award in 1995 and has subsequently been coupled with landmine images from around the world taken by Melbourne photographer John Rodsted and made into a five minute video by the International Red Cross in Geneva entitled "Shattered Lives".
The Australian Red Cross have also made the song into a CD single together with a Greg Arnold song "They colour in the Landmines".
The song is also on the Bernard Carney & Peter Grayling CD " No Time Like The Future"
Visit Bernard's web site at: http://www.bernardcarney.com/
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