Lila Downs Follow

How dark is the smoke that falls from the sky
And soaked in our blood are the feathers of time
More women and children were killed on that night
More than they could count when they threw 'em in trucks

Some children were kneeling, the saints were all calm
Machetes and gunshots reveal all the blood
The papers recounted the story we know
Yet silence is deep as the hundreds of souls
And the hundreds of hopes of our people

But will there be goodness where men kill their own?
Our wise people say
That the mouth of the earth has swallowed her fruit
But the eagle and snake will stand for the truth

When the mother of corn has spoken
Oh axe, of our fire bring justice to life
For we know that power was once sacrificed
And it was sacrifice and it was sacrifice of our people

How dark is the smoke that falls from the sky
And soaked in our blood are the feathers of time
More women and children were killed on that night