There Is a Wall

There is a wall & it’s the tallest wall of all
They named a street for it where numbers roll & eyes go blank
A wall of gold, they buy the future with the past
They call it work, just feels like money in the bank
   And way down at the foot of that wall
   Where the guards can barely see her at all
   A woman is standing, not asking, not demanding
   A poor woman is standing
   With a hammer in her hand

Don't you want a piece of that wall
When it comes down?
Don't you want to live to see it fall
When it comes round?
When that wall is gone, no matter which side you were on
Can you say you took a piece of that wall down?
Don't you want a piece of that wall? 

There is a wall & it’s the meanest wall of all
Stretched from my doorstep straight back to 1492
It hides the ovens, it hides the settlements, the homelands
Pink triangles, passbooks, shackles & tattoos
   And way down at the foot of that wall
   Where the guards can barely see him at all
   An old man is standing, not asking, not demanding
   An old Black man is standing
   With a hammer in his hand
 
There is a wall & it’s the oldest wall of all
A wall of fear - holds danger out, desire in.
A wall that bristles each time
The warden brings back tales
Inside we're starving to buy the bricks to build the cells
To bury love, to bar the door, to ban the stranger
   And way down at the foot of that wall
   Where the guards can barely see at all
   A stranger is standing, not asking, not demanding
   A stranger is standing
   With a hammer for your hand
 
Lyrics & music by Charlie King.
© 1990, Charlie King, Pied Asp Music (BMI). All rights reserved. Used by permission.

The "pink triangles" in verse 2 refers to what was sewn into the uniforms of gay men & women in German death camps in the 1930's and 1940's. The "homelands" refers to crowded impoverished areas where Africans were required to live in South Africa under Apartheid. Africans were required to carry special passbooks under Apartheid.