My Land - Janis Ian

The country is a bleeding child

And a broken, withered whore

With righteous anger, time after time

Come clawing at her door

And the fatherless child, running wild

Screaming — no no more

Please believe — my hands are clean

I’ve never seen the guillotine

Must you say I’m guilty, guilty all the same?

Such things can’t be in my USA

'Cause no no no, it just can’t be

In a land like mine, all decent and free

You must be mistaken, not my country

Such things happen across the sea

No no no, not my land

You’re green and rotting corpses are reeking in the sun

Calvary horses laying in their dung

And the plague on your household’s only just begun

You can see that it’s come

You raise up the guns

And aim them to blot out the sun

But no no no, it just can’t be

In a land like mine, decent and free

You must be mistaken, not my country

Such things happen across the sea

No no no, not my land

I’ll go on giving to charity

Long as I needn’t look back at life

I’ll go to church, be proud of my piety

I’ll pray only when you say it’s all right

I want to follow in your society

'Cause I’m too damned scared to fight

I will close myself up in a wall

Pretend I can’t see or hear at all

I will point my finger back across the sea

Ignoring all that goes on around me

Saying «Look what goes on in that other country»

'Cause no no no, it just can’t be

In a land like mine, decent and free

You must be mistaken, not my country

Such things happen across the sea

No no no, not my land