let's meet on the street
where the old men play dominoes
drink their cervezas and smoke their cigars
I cannot ignore them
as I step around
unlike you I've seen famine and wars

let's drink to your city
this same bitter cocktail
of boredom contempt
and refinement and shame
and once I offend you
consider that really
you don't want to hear me explain

just lend me a dollar
so I can stop caring
or give me a reason
I’m coming up short
cause now is the time I should rejoin the living
but I'm tired of the spectator sport

as I stared the panther in the eyes
I was staring down my soul
I stumbled through the undergrowth
shedding all my self-control
I knew I could never unlearn what it was
that she showed me
‘cause
all I could think of was

death or glory

I knew I would never escape from that jungle
I knew I would never escape from that jungle
why would I want to escape from that jungle
and why would I want to go home again

Down to the cellar
a grandmama’s walking
on legs of titanium
with four rubber feet
she knows the aroma
of cities on fire
has jars of the things she will needthey've burned all our bridges
and we lazy swimmers
seek refuge in yellow-green
haze of the sky
below us the rusted out boat-hulls just wallow and sigh

it's you who's complacent
it's I who am crazy
and everyone always around me is blind
and while you sit blinking back
tears of outrage
I have already made up my mind

The rebel soldiers silently
took positions in the town
their captain gave the signal
and they tried to shoot me down
I knew then I could never pretend
cause the panther she showed me

that all that I needed was
death or glory

I left the best part of myself in the jungle
yeah, I left no part of myself in that jungle
no one can hear me through all their civility
I can’t hear myself above all this politeness

so pose for your picture
the camera’s watching
It silently marks my redemption
and other
affronts to the populace
it sees black and white
it can’t care that we want to be free