A shift in the wind A moment of silence The whole thing depends On a history of violence The mourning wails Of ancestors haunt The lineage of hurt And conquest A seal in the wax A parcel of land A river runs through it Unmoved by the hand That drew up the borders And settled the claim The water kept moving The owners kept names Who inherits the house? Who inherits the debt? Who gets to move on? Who is made to forget? The names have been changed But the terms are the same How much can a person Inherit in a name? At some point the sword Becomes silverware Passed hand over hand With the greatest of care The children learn manners They sit up straight And nobody asks Who first owned the plate The daughters were promised The sons went to war The mothers kept mourning The fathers kept score And all of their children And all of their dead Became little branches Of something unsaid Who inherits the house? Who inherits the debt? Who gets to move on? Who is made to forget? The names have been changed But the terms are the same How much can a person Inherit in a name? I answer to something I never agreed to A word with a history I never lived through And somewhere behind me The victor and slain Have become indistinguishable In the spelling of my name A shift in the wind A moment of silence The whole thing depends On a history of violence The ink has gone pale The stone has gone green And nobody living Remembers the scene But somebody kept it And passed it along A name and a story Of where we belong A shift in the wind A moment of silence The whole thing depends The whole thing depends
