Stones in the Road

When we were young, we pledged allegiance Every morning of our lives The classroom rang with children's voices Under teacher's watchful eye We learned about the world around us At our desks and at dinnertime Reminded of the starving children Cleaned our plates with guilty minds The stones in the road We played like marbles in the dust Until a voice called for us To make our way back home The stones in the road When I was ten, my father held me On his shoulders above the crowd To see a train draped in mourning Pass slowly through our town His widow kneeled with all her children At the sacred burial ground And the TV glowed that long hot summer With all the cities burning down And the stones in the road Flew out from our bicycle tires Worlds removed from all those fires as we raced Each other home The stones in the road Stones And now we drink our coffee on the run Climb that ladder rung by rung We are the daughters and the sons But here's the line that's missing The starving children have been replaced By souls out on the street We give a dollar when we pass And hope our eyes don't meet We pencil in, we cancel out We crave the corner suite We kiss your ass We make you hold, we doctor the receipt Stones in the road Flew out from beneath our wheels Another day, another deal, before we get back home The stones in the road Leave a mark from whence they came A thousand points of light or shame Baby, I don't know Stones in the road Stones In the road