Wartime Prayers

Wartime Prayers - Paul Simon (保羅·西蒙)

Prayers offered in times of peace

Are silent conversations

Appeals for love or love's release

In private invocations

But all that is changed now

Gone like a memory from the day before the fires

People hungry for the voice of God

Hear lunatics and liars

Wartime prayers

Wartime prayers

In every language spoken

For every family scattered and broken

Because you cannot walk with the holy

If you're just a halfway decent man

I don't pretend that I'm a mastermind

With a genius marketing plan

I'm trying to tap into some wisdom

Even a little drop will do

I want to rid my heart of envy

And cleanse my soul of rage before I'm through

Times are hard it's a hard time

But everybody knows

All about hard times the thing is

What are you gonna do

Well you cry and try to muscle through

And try to rearrange your stuff

But when the wounds are deep enough

And it's all that we can bear

We wrap ourselves in prayer

Because you cannot walk with the holy

If you're just a halfway decent man

I don't pretend that I'm a mastermind

With a genius marketing plan

I'm trying to tap into some wisdom

Even a little drop will do

I want to rid my heart of envy

And cleanse my soul of rage before I'm through

A mother murmurs in twilight sleep

And draws her babies closer

With hush a byes for sleepy eyes

And kisses on the shoulder

To drive away despair

She says a wartime prayer