Hiroshima - David Rovics

Ten thousand children played in the playground

Swinging on the swings, didn’t hear the sound

Of the single plane that flew overhead

The third shift workers were just going to bed

There was a flash of light and a rumbling noise

And gone in a instant, parents, girls and boys

Ten thousand mothers were boiling rice

A thousand prisoners of war were rolling their dice

Hoping they’d survive this terrible storm

When each young man in his uniform

Vanished in the air in the blink of an eye

One moment they lived, the next they all died

Hiroshima, Hiroshima

Ten thousand chickens were sitting on eggs

Beaks in their wings, resting their legs

Ten thousand farmers were looking at their fields

Planning the harvest, guessing at yields

Dreaming of life after the war

The next second they weren’t living no more

Hiroshima, Hiroshima

Ten thousand lovers made love to each other

Each one of them thinking there might not be another

Living so long with death everywhere

Much more than one person alone can bear

But there wasn’t time for a final kiss

Who could’ve known it would end like this

Hiroshima, Hiroshima

A hundred thousand people were living their lives

Grandparents, children, fathers and wives

Now they’re just shadows on the street

In such a quick burst of incredible heat

Now listen to them talk about doing it again

From whence came the souls of these terrible men

Hiroshima, Hiroshima