The creeking silence of age echos through the streets.
Sounds like old wooden floors under heavy feet.
All of the children once running around have evacuated
Or maybe they’ve just disappeared

Where have all the children gone?

Just yesterday they were tying ribbons in trees and swinging from the branches.
They were leaping over hot coals and swooning at anything

Where have all the children gone?

Those of us who remain wonder around like abandoned children in shopping malls.

Where have all the children gone?

Maybe this is just a dream
Maybe we are sleeping in rooms filled with metal shelves
If we put our ears to those shelves they would tell us stories of how they were emptied

Emptied by the fingers of fathers
Emptied into the flesh of their sons and daughters.

Where have all the children gone?

We hope they’re hiding
We hope they’re playing a game
But we know this is really happening

Where have all the children gone?