Four Blank Slates - David Rovics

Beside an unused union hall

And an abandoned factory

By the Allegheny River

In another rust belt city

You can see the well-dressed families

On Memorial Day

Reading the names on the walls

Of all those who went away

Who went off in a ship

And came back in a bag

Packed into a coffin

Wrapped up in a flag

I saw a war on every stone

I read a name on every line

And when I reached the end

A chill ran down my spine

Four blank slates

For battlefields yet unknown

That soon some will call their own

A wordless message in a frame

Four blank slates

For the dice that aren’t yet tossed

For the lives that aren’t yet lost

For a war without a name

What will be written on that stone

Will it be on Persian soil

Will they say it was for freedom

Or Venezuelan oil

The only thing that’s certain

Is it will be across the sea

And the new names on this rock

Will have died in someone else’s country

Four blank slates

For battlefields yet unknown

That soon some will call their own

A wordless message in a frame

Four blank slates

For the dice that aren’t yet tossed

For the lives that aren’t yet lost

For a war without a name

How many other nations

Are already planning their next war

How many people know

It’ll be on someone else’s shore

Will there come a time

When all good people are enraged

To see a slate awaiting

A war that’s not yet waged

Four blank slates

For battlefields yet unknown

That soon some will call their own

A wordless message in a frame

Four blank slates

For the dice that aren’t yet tossed

For the lives that aren’t yet lost

For a war without a name