The creaking silence of age echoes through the streets
Sounds like old wooden floors under heavy feet
All of the children once running around have evacuated
Or maybe they just disappeared
Where have all the children gone?

Just yesterday they were tying ribbons in trees
And swinging from the branches
They were leaping over coals and swooning at anything
Where have all the children gone?

Those of us who remain wander around like abandoned children in shopping malls
Where have all the children gone?
Maybe this is just a dream
Maybe we are sleeping in rooms filled with metal shelves
If we put our ears to those shelves, they will tell us stories of how they were emptied
Emptied by the fingers of fathers, emptied into the flesh of their sons and daughters
Where have all the children gone?

We hope they're hiding
We hope they're playing a game
But we know this is really happening
Where have all the children gone?