City of the KingsWords & Music by Carsten Nielsen

CITY OF THE KINGS

Vultures are circling over the Plaza de Armas
Making pitstops on the walls of the church
Below a kid's trying to sell matches and candy
But the competition is fierce
Soldiers are hauling away the roadblocks
Moving the warnings and the rusty chains
Giving way to the old cars and the buses
And the smog for which downtown is famed

Cesar opens his eyes
And rises from the bench
In the City of the Kings
He washes his face in the pond
And heads out of the park
In the City of the Kings

There's been an earthquake for the third time this year
A 6.8 on the Richter scale
It made the cardboard houses outside city
Collapse and fall to the foot of the hills

They've asked the United Nations for help
But no one wants to support this regime
They know the aid is used for armour
And extravaganzas for the brigade

Cesar is walking with
His brother on the streets
In the City of the Kings
They're looking for a way
To make it through the day
In the City of the Kings

The spanish houses still stand
But they're scarred by the years that are gone
Cesar lifts his brother up
To let him look through the windows

A bomb explodes near a government building
And a stone statue loses its head
It's the work of the marxist guerrilla
Who according to the army is dead

Then the tanks roll back into the city
Like they've done so often before
They play their little tricks of terror
In the vain hope that this time it will work

Cesar is sleeping with
His brother on a bench
In the City of the Kings
He dreams that the bench is a boat
And it's sailing them away
From the City of the Kings