Hold Your Fire

SECOND NATURE

A memo to a higher office
Open letter to the powers that be
To a God, a king, a head of state
A captain of industry
To the movers and the shakers ‹
Can't everybody see?

It ought to be second nature ‹
I mean the places where we live
Let's talk about this sensibly ‹
We're not insensitive
I know that progress has no patience ‹
But somethings got to give

I know you're diffrent ‹
You know I'm the same
We're both too busy
To be taking the blame
I'd like some changes,
But you don't have the time
We can't go on thinking
It's a victimless crime
No one is blameless,
But we're all without shame
We fight the fire ‹
While we're
Feeding the flames

Folks have got to make choices ‹
And choices got to have voices
Folks are basically decent
Conventional Wisdom would say
Well, we read about
The exceptions
In the papers every day

It ought to be second nature
At least that's what I feel
"Now lay me down in dreamland" ‹
I know perfect's not for real
I thought we might get closer ‹
Now I'm ready to make a deal

Today is different,
And tomorrow the same
It's hard to take the world the way that it came
Too many rapids
Keep us sweeping along
Too many captains
Keep on steering us wrong
It's hard to take the heat ‹
It's hard to lay blame
We fight the fire ‹
While we're
Feeding the flames

Go Back To The Hold Your Fire Song List