Her voice never trembled, her look never waned
As she showed me the photos in the solemn black frames
A cousin, a sister, a daughter, a son
Lost in the night or in the sight of a gun
The Guarda left her father, Luis, on the track
And her son picking coffee just never came back
On the roadside the crosses look always the same
But each has a story and each has a name (They were...)

CHORUS:

Caught in the crossfire, lost in the fray
The battle broke out and they just got in the way
The story is always the same in the end
Caught in the crossfire again
Caught in the crossfire again

Juancito, her husband had visions and plans
Struggled his whole life to work his own lands
His faith was a mountain, but her world would explode
When the wheel of his truck found a mine in the road (And he was...) CHORUS

So many stories, so many lives
The parents, the children, the husbands, the wives
A whole population just pawns in the game
For the East and the West the rest is only terrain (Where they're...) CHORUS

Now I lie in the night and I just try to resist
But a hand that is empty soon curls to a fist
The cry in the cradle, the knock on the door
The blood in the speeches we've all heard before (We are...)
CHORUS (2x)

Copyright 1987 by John McCutcheon. Published by Appalsongs (ASCAP).