In the afternoon light riding around Riding my bike all over town They said on TV that out west right now The rivers can poison us And it was hard to believe Watching it win Kept coming down and kept coming in And finally reached where our great cities stand Now the rivers can poison us And once more we find out in case we've forgot Just who is strong here and just who is not As if we could hand her some route that we'd plot The rivers can poison us It lifted the trash It lifted the gold And lifted the lives to weak to hold All swept into some diluvian fold The rivers can poison us It's like all that we've done has seeped from the sea It's been take what you want and leave what you leave We sure have been pigs since adam and eve Now the rivers can poison us And I love the thought of us all being one But kids in the third grade pack needles and guns And now we might die if we lie in the sun And the rivers can poison us Salt of the earth ebb and the flow All that we have and more than we know Laden with garbage from decades ago The rivers can poison us Maybe one day the great salty blue Will swallow us up with all that we knew And things will start over like they always do When the rivers can poison us