He fenced a piece of ground and said”This is mine”
He found us simple enough, and we all fell in line
Not one of us pulled up the stakes, not one of us said no
And that’s your civil society. That’s the whole show
The fruits belong to everyone
The earth belongs to none
Somebody should have said it
Before the thing was done
Somebody should have pulled the stakes
And told us we were lost
But nobody did, and here we are
And look at what it cost
We used to meet beneath a tree to sing a while and dance
And every man was looking to be looked at, given a chance
The best one on his feet, the handsomest, the strong
That’s the first step into vice. That’s where it all went wrong
And having wasn’t good enough, you had to seem it too
To be thought what you weren’t became the thing to do
To be and to appear became two very different things
And out of that came pomp and knavery and all it brings
The fruits belong to everyone
The earth belongs to none
Somebody should have said it
Before the thing was done
Somebody should have pulled the stakes
And told us we were lost
But nobody did, and here we are
And look at what it cost
The poet blames the gold and silver for the state we’re in
But iron and corn have civilised us, that’s where it begins
The forge, the plough, the fence, the field, the counting of the grain
And no one’s rested since that day. And no one will again
And then the rich man stood and said”Let us unite
To keep the weak from being crushed, to set the matter right”
We offered up our necks to the yoke to keep ourselves free
And it bound the weak up tighter and it gave the rich the key
The savage lives within himself, he wants and he is fed
We live outside ourselves entirely, somewhere in the head
Of anyone who’s looking, and we take it as our proof
We cringe to men we hate and call it honour. That’s the truth
And a handful choke on everything they’ll never get around
While the famished go on wanting what you’d think would go around
And I walked home tonight and caught myself just standing there
Checking how I’d said it. Checking how I wear my hair
The fruits belong to everyone
The earth belongs to none
Somebody should have said it
Before the thing was done
Somebody should have pulled the stakes
And told us we were lost
But nobody did, and here we are
And look at what it cost
And I’ve a bit of garden with a fence around the back
I put it up myself. I don’t remember doing that
I should take that fence down
I probably won’t.