dar williams
bought and sold
Well we're heading for a past that you leave not defend  Where the downtowns hold the sadness of you can't go back again   It's there you'll find the rust and debtors  Motel signs with missing letters  Cause there's a monster on the outskirts  Says it knows what your town needs  Then it eats it up like nothing and it won't spit out the seeds  And we can be the super shoppers  We can say we're really smart  We can say our town is doing fine without a beating heart   We can even say the money saved is all our own  It's bought and sold, it's bought and sold  And we're heading for a nasty business, keeps our country growing  Where the weapons that we're selling are the only seeds we're sowing   You get to blow the fruits of all your labors  Sell F-16's to all the neighbors  And we know that it's for money  And that's how the west gets bargained  You the know the last time this happened  Even Vietnam got jargoned  And you can say they're out to hunt you  You can say they're out to fish you  You can join a gang of restless boys  Or start your own militia  You can even say your violence is all your own  It's bought and sold, it's bought and sold  Well I look up to the people who are less bought than I   You can show them what you're selling  And they'll only ask you why  And their paychecks don't have lots of zeros  They're my friends and they're my heroes  And the TV sets are angry 'cause they just can't make 'em pay  But I like the way these people read the signs and walk away   And we can call ourselves the makers  And the keepers of the times  We can spend our sand dollars  And sand nickels and sand dimes  We can even say prosperity is all our own  It's bought and sold, it's bought and sold  We can even say our loneliness is all our own  It's bought and sold, it's bought and sold  It's bought and sold, it's bought and sold