Ballade of Waco, Texas

(Newspoem 19 March 1998)

The morning that the agent leaves there's danger in the air
There's hissing through the bugs the Lord is leaking information
The doors are locked when men arrive with warrants and a badge
A man is in his house and he's refusing to come out

And then they storm the house by force with rifles and with vests
The shooting starts and agents fall but won't negotiate
While those inside call 911 and beg for this to stop
But after fifty days they'll come to burn them to the ground

The ATF, the FBI, have kept the press away
A man protects his family and refuses to come out
He loves his God, his Bill of Rights, and yes he owns a gun
And after fifty days they'll come to burn him to the ground

Their helicopters with machine guns strafe them from the air
And won't cease fire to let them help their wounded and their dead
And then deny to those they shot that they have fired at all
A man is in his house and he's refusing to come out

The soldiers desecrate their graves and moon them from their lawn
They light the house up through the night and torture them with sound
They drive their tanks in through the wall and crush them where they stand
And after fifty days they'll come to burn them to the ground

He ceased to fire and now he prays to God to save his children
A man is in his house and he's refusing to come out
He will not send his children out to men so cold and cruel
So after fifty days they've come to burn them to the ground

A tank punctures the compound wall and sprays in CS gas
It's flammable it's toxic it's enough to kill them all
Tanks tear the building on two sides and let the winds rush through
A man is in his house and he's refusing to come out

The infants and the elderly, now gassed, all choke to death
Two machine guns opened fire on those who tried to run
Their right to remain silent was the only right they died with
For having waited fifty days they burned them to the ground

They knew that the whole church had just one fire extinguisher
A man was in his house and was refusing to come out
They blocked the firetrucks on the road and would not let them near
The building, which in one fast hour, then burned down to the ground

The Bill of Rights protects us from the US Government's
Unusually cruel punishment and silencing the press
Illegal search and seizure and concealing information
Religion speech and congregation all burned to the ground