I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Deep inside the border
Children are crying
Fighting for food
Holding their heads
Breaking their bread with a stone
All along the roadside
People are standing
Watching the sun
Shielding their eyes
Brushing the flies from their face
Tell me, what can you say
Tell me, who do you blame
Like a mirror you see yourself
These people each have a name
All around the township
Young men are dying
(of) hunger and thirst
The well has run dry
The tears from her eye feeds her son
Tell me
You can say you're pulling back
We see the pictures everywhere
But what we don't see is what's
Going on behind the closed doors
And you don't seem to care
Do you expect me to believe you
How can you really think
You can take your horse down to the water
Hold a gun at his head
And make him drink
No matter what you say, it never gets any better
No matter what you do, we never see any change
People living without rights
Without their dignity
How loud does one man have to shout
To earn his right to be free
You can keep your toy soldiers
To segregate the black and white
But when the dust settles
And the blood stops running
How do you sleep at night?
No matter what you say
What makes you so high and mighty
What makes you so qualified
You can sit there and say
How many have their freedom
But how many more have died
You decide to sit in judgment
Trying to play God yourself
Someday soon the buck is gonna stop
Stop with you and no one else
No matter
Children are crying
Fighting for food
Holding their heads
Breaking their bread with a stone
All along the roadside
People are standing
Watching the sun
Shielding their eyes
Brushing the flies from their face
Tell me, what can you say
Tell me, who do you blame
Like a mirror you see yourself
These people each have a name
All around the township
Young men are dying
(of) hunger and thirst
The well has run dry
The tears from her eye feeds her son
Tell me
You can say you're pulling back
We see the pictures everywhere
But what we don't see is what's
Going on behind the closed doors
And you don't seem to care
Do you expect me to believe you
How can you really think
You can take your horse down to the water
Hold a gun at his head
And make him drink
No matter what you say, it never gets any better
No matter what you do, we never see any change
People living without rights
Without their dignity
How loud does one man have to shout
To earn his right to be free
You can keep your toy soldiers
To segregate the black and white
But when the dust settles
And the blood stops running
How do you sleep at night?
No matter what you say
What makes you so high and mighty
What makes you so qualified
You can sit there and say
How many have their freedom
But how many more have died
You decide to sit in judgment
Trying to play God yourself
Someday soon the buck is gonna stop
Stop with you and no one else
No matter
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Phil has become a humanitarian and wants to bring attention to the oppressed. It was probably written with the Africans in mind, but it would apply to the Iraqis, Ukrainians, etc.