Subdivision

white people are so scared of black people
 they bulldoze out to the country
 and put up houses on little loop-dee-loop streets
 and while america gets its heart cut right out of its chest
 the berlin wall still runs down main street
 separating east side from west
 and nothing is stirring, not even a mouse
 in the boarded-up stores and the broken-down houses
 so they hang colorful banners off all the street lamps
 just to prove they got no manners
 no mercy and no sense
 and i'm wondering what it will take
 for my city to rise
 first we admit our mistakes
 then we open our eyes
 the ghosts of old buildings are haunting parking lots
 in the city of good neighbors that history forgot
 i remember the first time i saw someone
 lying on the cold street
 i thought: i can't just walk past here
 this can't just be true
 but i learned by example
 to just keep moving my feet
 it's amazing the things that we all learn to do
 so we're led by denial like lambs to the slaughter
 serving empires of style and carbonated sugar water
 and the old farm road's a four-lane that leads to the mall
 and our dreams are all guillotines waiting to fall
 i'm wondering what it will take
 for my country to rise
 first we admit our mistakes
 and then we open our eyes
 or nature succumbs to one last dumb decision
 and america the beautiful
 is just one big subdivision