Beds Are Burning

Out where the river broke
the bloodwood and the desert oak
Holden wrecks and boiling diesels
steam in forty five degrees

The time has come
to say fair's fair
to pay the rent
to pay our share

The time has come
a fact's a fact
it belongs to them
let's give it back

How can we dance when our earth is turning
how do we sleep while our beds are burning

Four wheels scare the cockatoos
from Kintore East to Yuendemu
the western desert lives and breathes
in forty five degrees

Blue Sky Mine

There'll be food on the table tonight
There'll be pay in your pocket tonight

My gut is wrenched out it is crunched up and broken
My life that is lived is no more than a token
Who'll strike the flint upon the stone and tell me why?

If I yell out at night there's a reply of blue silence
The screen is no comfort I can't speak my sentence
They blew the lights and heaven's gate and I don't know why

CHORUS
But if I work all day on the blue sky mine
(There'll be food on the table tonight)
Still I walk up and down on the blue sky mine
(There'll be pay in your pocket tonight)

The candy store paupers lie to the shareholders
They're crossing their fingers they pay the truth makers
The balance sheet is breaking up the sky

So I'm caught in  the junction still waiting for medicine
The sweat of my brow keeps on feeding the engine
Hope the crumbs in my pocket can keep me for another night

And if the blue sky mining company won't come to my rescue
If the sugar refining company won't save me

Who's gonna save me?

CHORUS

And some have sailed from a distant shore
And the company takes what the company wants
And nothing's as precious
As a hole in the ground

Who's gonna save me?
I pray that sense and reason brings us in
Who's gonna save me?
We've got nothing to fear

In the end the rain comes down
Washes clean the streets of a blue sky town

Forgotten Years

Few of the sins of the father
Are visited upon the son
Hearts have been hard
Hands have been clenched into fists too long

Our sons need never be soldiers
Our daughters will never need guns
These are the years between
These are the years that were hard fought and won

Contracts torn at the edges
Old signatures stained with tears
Seasons of war and grace
These should not be forgotten years

Still it aches like tetanus
It reeks of politics
How many dreams remain?
This is a feeling too strong to contain

CHORUS
The hardest years, the darkest years
The roarin' years, the fallen years
These should not be forgotten years
The hardest years, the wildest years
The desperate and divided years
We will remember
These should not be forgotten years

Our shoreline was never invaded
Our country was never in flames
This is the calm we breathe
This is a feeling too strong to contain

Still it aches like tetanus
It reeks of politics
Signatures stained with tears
Who can remember, we've got to remember

The hardest years, the darkest years
Forsaking aching breaking years
The time 'n' tested heaeartbreak years
These should not be forgotten years

The blinded years, the binded years
The desperate and divided years
These should not be forgotten years
Remember