Still your nerves, close your eyes
Raise your hands up to the skies
No reason now to worry
Your fears were long-since realized
Sergeant Moses comes to preach
The law, sees this atheist reaching
Up toward the Lord, he laughs
Says, "I've heard you'd like to teach
"The world to sing in perfect harmony"
You say, "Why yes, how charming
All the cops and commies
Making love in just their body armor
"Yes, to teach the world to sing
And let the dirge of freedom ring
No more shame or fear, my dear
Mommy fixed everything
"And once the world has perfect pitch
I'd like to dig that world a ditch
And carve upon its headstone:
'The flesh is dead which does not itch'
"I'd like to buy that world a Coke
Filled with gasoline and a soaking
Scrap of cloth, I'd like to teach this anthem:
'I started a joke'
"The one that starts the whole world crying
When grief saves the world from dying
There's no worth in peace on earth
Save for the love of fighting"
Old Red Emma, only you remember
Eighteen-eighty-seven, the eleventh of November
Their costumes spotless, the play so plotless
The way their silence taught this
World to sing in perfect harmony