Millions of memories
Wiped from the slate
An immense holocaust
Of disease and hate
Centuries of resistance
To encroachment and plunder
For which their descendants
Have but little to show for
Oh how I wish
I could take it all back
Or at least get us off
Of today’s twisted track
Even more millions
Enslaved and martyred
Whose wealth today
Has been all but squandered
Struggling for the dream
Amidst the grieving wails
Whose descendants now languish
In prisons and jails
Oh how I wish
I could take it all back
Or at least get us off
Of today’s twisted track
Millions upon millions
Have been denied credence
For the crime of gender
Through millennia of perseverance
Whose descendants continue
To be raped and confined
Second class citizens
Amongst people of all kinds
Oh how I wish
I could take it all back
Or at least get us off
Of today’s twisted track
Unknown millions
Hid themselves away
From family and friends
Carefully working for the day
When being themselves
Would not inspire hate
But for whose descendants
Only closets remain safe
Oh how I wish
I could take it all back
Or at least get us off
Of today’s twisted track
Millions have come
From around the globe
To better their lives
By building our own
Taken advantage of
Scapegoated, abhorred
Along with their descendants
Whose blood still pours
Oh how I wish
I could take it all back
Or at least get us off
Of today’s twisted track
Millions who are different
Forsaken by machinations
Of institutionalized normalcy
And special expectations
Diagnosed and prescribed with
Debilitating ineptitudes
Whose descendants must adapt
To systems of rigid values
Oh how I wish
I could take it all back
Or at least get us off
Of today’s twisted track
Millions of distorted mirrors
Reflecting images of depression
Elusive manufactured ideals
Replacing self-worth with obsession
Forever the wrong size
Wrong shape wrong everything
Whose descendants can only measure
Substandard eternity
Oh how I wish
I could take it all back
Or at least get us off
Of today’s twisted track
Millions of rough hands
Toiled day and night
In factories and assembly lines
And winning our rights
Paid for with lives
And by getting sacked
Whose descendants must still
Organize against rollbacks
Oh how I wish
I could take it all back
Or at least get us off
Of today’s twisted track
Millions of wasted minds
Both early and late in life
Out of sight and ignored
Generations of isolated strife
For their fettered involvement
Offered condescending words
Whose abused descendants remain
Unfavorably seen and rarely heard
Oh how I wish
I could take it all back
Or at least get us off
Of today’s twisted track
Untold millions
Mass slaughtered and sold
For profit and industry
Lies packaged and told
Disguised as sustenance
In plain site on the table
Murdered and poisoned
Their descendants unlabeled
Oh how I wish
I could take it all back
Or at least get us off
Of today’s twisted track
Millions of untamed lives
Erased from existence
Both ambulatory and rooted
To serve dollars and cents
Victims of our own demise
Never presented a choice
In the last surviving wilderness
Their descendants still without voice
Oh how I wish
I could take it all back
Or at least get us off
Of today’s twisted track
Millions of humble prayers
Sung out in all tongues
Answered with bombed churches
Temples and synagogues
A culture of persecution
Despite myths of our beginnings
Haunts their descendants
Denying them their wings
Oh how I wish
I could take it all back
Or at least get us off
Of today’s twisted track
Millions of wretched masses
Yearning for a meal
Left hungry and homeless
By the system’s cogged wheels
Teeming with desperation
Steadfastly struggling toward the shore
Whose descendants have been tossed
Into darkness outside the golden door
Oh how I wish
I could take it all back
Or at least get us off
Of today’s twisted track
Millions of dissidents
Who witnessed all of the above
Executed and disappeared
Despite the people’s love
For actively defending life
And promoting all wars’ end
Their descendants find inspiration
From their never giving in
Oh how I wish
I could take it all back
Or at least get us off
Of today’s twisted track
When all of the millions
Find their common ground
See themselves in each other
The same oppression all around
When differences cease to divide
And solidarity becomes our pact
All of life's descendants
Will escape this twisted track
