Oh. Oh
And the mothers work
And the children play
And the fathers ran away
The fathers
The fathers ran away
The fathers
The fathers ran away

Hold your breath
Count to ten
No telling when he might come back again

We are the children of a fatherless place
Don’t you see us standing with our brothers sharing Mother’s face
And the brother’s heading out before he get too sick
But the sister’s staying home because the sister’s quick
Don’t you know you run when you’re angry
When there’s nowhere to go
You run away one day. History say it so
You chase the sun cuz the earth don’t shed a single grain
Yeah daddy run run run but he don’t break the chain

And the mothers work
And the children play
And the fathers ran away
The fathers
The fathers ran away
The fathers
The fathers ran
The fathers ran away
When you’re rich, when the coast is clear
(Come back, come back.)
When you strike at gold, if you’re not too old
(Come back. Bring it here.)
‘Cause Momma’s waiting at the kitchen door
She’s waiting and waiting and I’m not sure
She’ll even know what she’s waiting for til she hear you’re here

When the stars go pitch black
When your feet dry and crack
When your mind and your soul and your hard hard heart attack

When you can’t remember what you’re running to
When you cross the desert, seeing Timbuktu
With your hands full of sand
Let the sand run through
And then you
(Hold your breath.)
Come back. Come back
(Count to ten.)
Come back. Come back
(No telling when)
He might come back again

One. Two. Three. Four
(Come back. Come back.)
Five. Six. Seven. Eight
Oh, Nine
(Oh. Oh.)
Ten
No one here to save me, no one here to break me
Break us from this repetition, bad tradition
Break us from the precondition
Baby girl is born. Baby gonna die
Maybe baby girl don’t wanna live and die before she fly
She wanna run. Run
Run daddy
Run daddy
Run!

The fathers
The fathers ran away
The fathers
The fathers ran away

Don’t you know you run when you’re angry
When there’s nowhere to go
You run away one day. History say it so
(And the mothers work
And the children play
And the fathers ran away.)
History say it so
(And the mothers work
And the children play.)
And the fathers ran away