Rafah
(for Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall)
There's a gap in the line of graduates
On the stage, there's an empty place
Black clad women form an honor guard
Around an aching, silent space
Rachel, you left your classroom
Half a world away, you took your stand
To learn about the price of justice
Hard lessons in a harsh land
You
stood before the threatened house
Facing
tanks, you held your ground
Young
soldier in the 'dozer
Did
he meet your eye
As
he ran you down?
CHORUS: In
Rafah, dusty Rafah
Where
the children run in packs
Shouting
"What's your name? What's your name?"
And
war is the only game
On
the border where the tanks attack
In
the rubble and the razor wire
The
sniper towers open fire
On
Rafah
Tom, you came to that shattered town
To witness with your artist's eye
To find a way to show the world the truth
And change it, or at least to try
Children playing when the gunfire starts
You run to them through iron rain
What do you look like through the rifle scope
As the trigger's pulled to put
A bullet in your brain?
CHORUS: In
Rafah, bleeding Rafah
Where
the children run in packs
Shouting
"What's your name? What's your name?"
And
war is the only game
On
the border where the tanks attack
In
the rubble and the razor wire
The
sniper towers open fire
On
Rafah
Rachel, your friends step to the podium
Smile and shake the chancellor's hand
While your diploma is your martyr's poster
On a pockmarked wall in a bleeding land
And the houses fall, and the death toll climbs
All in the name of security
And the tanks crush dreams and promises
Of what this aching land could be
Where
all the legions of the unnamed dead
Cannot
yet bring the barriers down
How
many tears, how much blood shed?
What
will it take
To
free this bitter ground?
CHORUS: In
Rafah, bleeding Rafah
Where
the children run in packs
Shouting
"What's your name? What's your name?"
And
war is the only game
On
the border where the tanks attack
In
the rubble and the razor wire
The
sniper towers open fire
On
Rafah
Rafah,
dusty Rafah
Rafah
(c)2003 Starhawk
and Mark Simos-All Rights Reserved
Devachan
Music (BMI)
Lyrics: Starhawk; Music:
Mark Simos
info@songsofconscience.com
www.starhawk.org www.songsofconscience.com
and www.devachan.com
Version 20 Last updated 8 March 2005
These lyrics and the underlying work conditionally
released under a
Creative Commons Music Sharing License
(creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed-music).
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