Ra-ta-ta-ta, the sounds of the AK and we all scrambling

Not into the cellar or the basement

Any movement in plain sight of these rebels will be deemed a good target

We were warned ahead of time

Never look out the window when you hear the sounds of crime

The rebels don’t want you to know who they are

At the sounds of gun shots and hand propelled grenade

Don’t play hero, just hide and you have done the smartest thing

Another day, another crime

The people up north have racially killed an individual not their color type

He happens to be from the south

Big, big tension escalates on the street

The market places down south are littered with bodies of people killed in revenge

My color does not fit in out here in the south

Innocent citizens are getting pulled down from buses and maimed,  in broad daylight

This day I am trying to get to school

Was not aware the tension had filtered out here

I am riding the bus and praying someone does not call me out as odd

I look on the street

Houses and business owned by northerners are getting burnt down

Militia groups are walking the street and clad in amours and Ak's

Tires are burning ahead of me

The tires are used to narrow traffic to one lane while they search the buses

I am sick scared that I might be recognized

I survive

No one said a thing; no one called me out

Maybe I look like them after all

Back at the hostel, my greatest crime ever was not to ask who lives here

As a freshman, you are just happy to be in college and start going to school

The landlord walks my roommate and I around the new house with pride

I head out to town to spend the weekend with my parents

My roommate has the apartment to himself

Fast-forward to months later

Early one morning, big bangs and down goes one of the walls

A gang member wanted for the death of a rival gang member also lived here

Darn it, we should have known that!

The rival gang had come for him

The building starts up in smoke and more smoke by the hour

Everyone kept a little gas tank to cook with

It aided the next series of explosions

The gang member who they had come for got away

My roommate cries and cries as he tells me the story the next day

All he got out with was a mixed pair of sandals

That could so easily have being me I thought

Thank God he survived

The whole building was never saved

No fire fighters. Nothing

Everything we moved in with all went up in smoke

It's being that bad and even worse in the past

These days I live out here in the United State

I wake up to law and order

I am healthy and sound and thank God everyday for my life

The only bells I hear these days are of tornado warnings

And that’s the only time you'd find me running to the basement for cover

God bless America