IF I HAD A ROCKET LAUNCHER (1983)
By Bruce Cockburn
(from the LP "Stealing Fire")

Here comes the helicopter -- second time today.
Everybody scatters and hopes it goes away.
How many kids they've murdered only god can say
If I had a rocket launcher...I'd make somebody pay.

I don't believe in guarded borders and I don't believe in hate
I don't believe in generals or their stinking torture states
And when i talk with the survivors of things too sickening to relate
If i had a rocket launcher...I would retaliate

On the Rio Lacantun one hundred thousand wait
to fall down from starvation -- or some less humane fate.
Cry for guatemala, with a corpse in every gate.
If i had a rocket launcher...I would not hesitate.

I want to raise every voice -- at least I've got to try.
Every time I think about it, water rises to my eyes.
Situation desperate, echoes of the victims cry,
"If I had a rocket launcher...some sonofabitch would die."