The day the hurricane blew
Down Bourban Street
Tearing away the signs
And the old dog from the porch
Wrenched babies entwined
In arms
Smothering cries of mothers
Swept down
Canal street made to live up to its name
Carrying the trailers from the parks,
The Walmart shopping carts
The empty Greyhound buses: Bound suddenly for the sea
No stops for the stranded poor
On rooftops, now the floor
Writing help me in tears

The bums got no more sidewalk to sleep on
Gone the Big Easy
To greasy water and stinking rot
Round all the people up like cattle
Corral em in the stadium in the cramp and the hot
On artificial grass no cow could eat

And the people (Americans)
Wait and see: Hopeful
And the people (Citizens)
Wait and see: Anxious

And what do you think
This is America
And what do you think
Isn’t this America
Land of plenty: A chicken in every pot

A bloated Mardi Gras procession passes-
The floating dead on splinters of wood
Seeking another Kingdom
And the politician’s mother says
They never had it so good

And the people (Americans)
Wait and see: Disgusted
And the people (Citizens)
Wait and see: Resentful
And the people (Tax Payers)
Wait and see: Pissed off

The young black men go stealing
Break down the doors
Of the gun stores
Gonna walk in the rich man’s shoes
Gonna take from whatever’s left
Because it’s the only chance they’ve got
Because they got nothing more to lose

The police in desperation hole up in their station
A forgotten Ark
They say, Fuck the situation
Shoot to kill
Shoot to kill
And they huddle in the dark
As the tide rises

And what do you think
This is America
What do you think
Isn’t this America: Home of the free

And the Little Man
Flies over in his plane
Looks down on the devastation
And says
I bet it’s even worse on the ground
But he doesn’t want to go down
Doesn’t want to go down!
Stays up in the clouds
Where the air is thin
And he settles back in his Chicken Hawk skin
He’s on the Disaster Cruise
And he calls his instructions in

Send crumbs to the indigent
And assurances to the indignant
Send promises for the institutions
And plastic bags for the pollution
And congratulations to the administration
And platitudes to the TV stations
And admonitions to the Looters
And instructions to the sharp shooters

And wait and see what happens

And what do you think
This is America

What do you think
It’s another mourning in America