The Fathers Ran Away
written for the 2010 Broadway in South Africa Benefit
Oh. Oh.
And the mothers work.
And the children play.
And the fathers ran away.
The fathers.
The fathers ran away.
The fathers.
The fathers ran away.
Hold your breath.
Count to ten.
No telling when he might come back again.
We are the children of a fatherless place.
Don’t you see us standing with our brothers sharing Mother’s face.
And the brother’s heading out before he get too sick.
But the sister’s staying home because the sister’s quick.
Don’t you know you run when you’re angry
When there’s nowhere to go
You run away one day. History say it so.
You chase the sun cuz the earth don’t shed a single grain.
Yeah daddy run run run but he don’t break the chain.
And the mothers work.
And the children play.
And the fathers ran away.
The fathers.
The fathers ran away.
The fathers.
The fathers ran.
The fathers ran away.
When you’re rich, when the coast is clear,
(Come back, come back.)
When you strike at gold, if you’re not too old
(Come back. Bring it here.)
‘Cause Momma’s waiting at the kitchen door.
She’s waiting and waiting and I’m not sure
She’ll even know what she’s waiting for til she hear you’re here.
When the stars go pitch black,
When your feet dry and crack,
When your mind and your soul and your hard hard heart attack.
When you can’t remember what you’re running to
When you cross the desert, seeing Timbuktu
With your hands full of sand,
let the sand run through
And then you
(Hold your breath.)
Come back. Come back.
(Count to ten.)
Come back. Come back.
(No telling when)
He might come back again.
One. Two. Three. Four.
(Come back. Come back.)
Five. Six. Seven. Eight.
Oh, Nine.
(Oh. Oh.)
Ten.
No one here to save me, no one here to break me,
break us from this repetition, bad tradition,
break us from the precondition.
Baby girl is born. Baby gonna die.
Maybe baby girl don’t wanna live and die before she fly.
She wanna run. Run.
Run daddy.
Run daddy.
Run!
The fathers.
The fathers ran away.
The fathers.
The fathers ran away.
Don’t you know you run when you’re angry,
When there’s nowhere to go.
You run away one day. History say it so.
(And the mothers work.
And the children play.
And the fathers ran away.)
History say it so.
(And the mothers work.
And the children play.)
And the fathers ran away.
