Nanci Griffith - It's A Hard Life Wherever You Go lyrics

I am a backseat driver from America
They drive to the left on Falls Road
The man at the wheel's name is Seamus
We pass a child on the corner he knows
And Seamus says, "Now
What chance has that kid got?"
And I say from the back, "I don't know"
He says
"There's barbed wire at all of these exit's
And there ain't no place in Belfast
For that kid to go"

It's a hard life
It's a hard life it's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
If we poison our children with hatred
Then, the hard life is all they'll ever know
And there ain't no place in
(Belfast) for these kids to go (Chicago)
(this world)

A cafeteria line in Chicago
The fat man in front of me
Is calling black people trash to his children
He's the only trash here I see
And I'm thinking this man wears a white hood
In the night when his children should sleep
But they slip to their window
And they see him and they think that white
Hood's all they need

It's a hard life
It's a hard life it's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
If we poison our children with hatred
Then, the hard life is all they'll ever know
And there ain't no place in
(Belfast) for these kids to go (Chicago)
(this world)

I was a child in the sixties
Dreams could be held through TV
With Disney and Cronkite and Martin Luther
Oh, I believed, I believed, I believed
Now, I am a backstreet driver from America
I am not at the wheel of control
I am guilty, I am war
I am the root of all evil
Lord, and I can't drive on the
Left side of the road

It's a hard life
It's a hard life it's a very hard life
It's a hard life wherever you go
If we poison our children with hatred
Then, the hard life is all they'll ever know
And there ain't no place in
(Belfast) for these kids to go (Chicago)
(this world)