One in Six

By the latest estimation, black men in the prime of life
Due to mass incarceration, taser, chokehold, gun & knife
Notwithstanding loud entreaties falling on disdainful ears
Now are an endangered species one in six have disappeared

(a cappella or in C capo 2)
C F G Am /  Em - F C :// G - F C / F - C G / 1st 2

Father, brother, son or lover one in six have disappeared
Stolen lives we can’t recover  one in six have disappeared
Every home bereft or broken, every bond that we hold dear
All the love that’s left unspoken  one in six have disappeared

Elder, mentor, willing student  one in six have disappeared
Damned by forces juris prudent one in six have disappeared
Master, journeyman, apprentice, pacifist or bombardier
Teacher, lawyer, doctor, dentist one in six have disappeared

Out in Ferguson Missouri  two in five have disappeared
Numbers tell a harder story  two in five have disappeared
Genders equal at beginnin’, if they live past teenage years
Sixty men, one hundred women  two in five have disappeared

Ends the song that’s sung in sorrow   one in six have disappeared
Even if we change tomorrow  one in six have disappeared
Reparations and repentance, justice rendered, life revered
Still we hear the heavy sentence one in six have disappeared

Lyrics by Charlie King, music by Rick Burkhardt © 2015 Pied Asp Music & Rick Burkhardt