If I could sing a song for every bomb that flies

I'd sing each and all the days

If there were to be a verse for every dying child's cries

For every helpless father's gaze

If I wrote a love letter to each corpse as it is carried

I'd never still my pen

If I had to stop a moment for each one that's been buried

I'd never move again

And the stocks are going up in some safe place in America

Sing a song for Basra

If I could shed a tear for every home that bombs destroy

I'd never stop crying

If every broken brick were a heart of a little girl or boy

All the world's children would be sighing

If I could hold each shattered body, each baby stilled at birth

I'd have no time for loneliness

I'd spend all my time embracing the people of this savaged earth

Feeling the poisoned wind's caress

And the billionaires are laughing in some safe place in America

Sing a song for Basra

If each barren pharmacy were a woman's shining eyes

I'd fall in love forever

If every bombed-out kindergarten were a factory in disguise

Wouldn't that be clever

But bricks are only bricks, and dust is only dust

And death is all around

Each day another missile falls and sometimes the only thing to trust

Is the shaking of the ground

And they're loading up the warplanes in some safe place in America

Sing a song for Basra