Well it could have been a girl in a daycare
Playing house with her Barbie doll
It could have been an old man in a wheelchair
Could have been a teen-ager in a mall
Well it could have been a boy in the schoolyard
Trying to catch it with a butterfly net
Well it could have been an airplane pilot
Flying over in a old-time jet
Could have been another radical thinker
Waiting for the chance to start a revolution
Could have been another great pretender
Could have been another hero to the poor
Could have been another cocaine dealer
Could have been another garbage stealer
Could have been a pseudo world-leader
Trying hard to start a Third World War
Shouldn't happen in middle America
Shouldn't happen on a maritime island
Shouldn't happen in the middle of April
Shouldn't happen in the middle of the day
Shouldn't happen here without a warning
Shouldn't happen in a place so quiet
It's like breaking a ship in a bottle
And throwing all the pieces away
Could have done it for the fame and the fortune
Or to make an insurance claim
Could have done it for the lives it maimed
Or to answer some strange call
Could have done it because it was treason
Could have done it because it was the season
Could have done it for any reason
But it doesn't really matter at all...
Shouldn't happen in middle America
Shouldn't happen on a maritime island
Shouldn't happen in the middle of April
Shouldn't happen in the middle of the day
Shouldn't happen here without a warning
Shouldn't happen in a place so quiet
It's like breaking a ship in a bottle
And throwing all the pieces away
Oh, I can't explain this way of living
Way of coping, we keep hoping
All these years, for something more
Oh, I can't explain this way of acting
Way of thinking, on the brink
Of some discovery
We wade back in brutality
Fifty years or more...