Behold a Pale Rider

[Verse 1: Simon Friend]
Bombs go off in London
Stirring panic's rhythmic creep
The city turns its shoulders
Smooths the cracks and tries to sleep

[Verse 2]
Split the Gulf sky red
As the oil fields start to blow
And weep a heavy storm of
Black, black rain
Onto the earth below

[Chorus]
And the millions cried, "Sweet Mary!"
A million more cried tears of shame
When they saw what they had done in the name of
All their hopes and fears
When they realised what they became

[Verse 3]
In hidden Eastern passes
That defenders will not yield
To a soldier from the Edgeware Road
Come to burn the poppy-fields

[Chorus]
And the millions cried, "Sweet Mary!"
A million more cried tears of shame
When they saw what they had done in the name of
All of their hopes and fears
When they realised what they became

[Refrain: Mark Chadwick]
Behold a pale rider
A New World partisan
20 years still with the desert dust
Slipping slowly through his hands

[Verse 4: Simon Friend]
And from the water margins
To Death Row Guantanamo
You can hear that King's Cross countdown
As the detonators blow

[Chorus]
And the millions cried, "Sweet Mary!"
A million more cried tears of shame
When they saw what they had done in the name of
All their hopes and fears
When they realised what they became

[Refrain: Mark Chadwick]
Behold a pale rider
A New World partisan
20 years still with the desert dust
Slipping slowly through his hands

[Instrumental Coda]