A-Infos (sup) (en) A poem for Jenin (song lyric, actually)

[DRovics@aol.com]

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Jenin
David Rovics

Oh, child, what will you remember
When you recall your sixteenth year
The horrid sound of helicopter gunships
The rumble of the tanks as they drew near
As the world went about it's business
And I burned another tank of gasoline
The Dow Jones lost a couple points that day
While you were crying in the City of Jenin

Did they even give your parents warning
Before they blew the windows out with shells
While you hid inside the high school basement
Amidst the ringing of church bells
As you watched your teacher crumble by the doorway
And in England they were toasting to the Queen
You were so far from the thoughts of so many
Huddled in the City of Jenin

Were you thinking of the taunting of the soldiers
Or of the shit they smeared upon the walls
Were you thinking of your cousin after torture
Or Tel Aviv and it's glittering shopping malls
When the fat men in their mansions say that you don't want peace
Did you wonder what they mean
As you sat amidst the stench inside the darkness
In the shattered City of Jenin

What went through your mind on that day
At the site of your mother's vacant eyes
As she lay still among the rubble
Beneath the blue Middle Eastern skies
As you stood upon this bulldozed building
Beside the settlements and their hills so green
As your tears gave way to grim determination
Among the ruins of the City of Jenin

And why should anybody wonder
As you stepped on board
The crowded bus across the Green Line
And you reached inside your jacket for the cord
Were you thinking of your neighbors buried bodies
As you made the stage for this scene
As you set off the explosives that were strapped around your waist
Were you thinking of the City of Jenin

Feel free to post and distribute.  Lyrics to other new songs can be found on 
my website.  Go to www.davidrovics.com then click on "song lyrics" then "new 
songs."  Other new songs include songs about Kurdistan, Colombia, sectarian 
leftists, patriotic fervor, the inherent contradictions of US foreign policy, 
etc.  If you click on "listen to songs" you will find MP3 files of some of 
the new songs, as well as lots of others.

DRovics@aol.com
(617) 747-4460 (voicemail)
(203) 901-3306 (cell)
P.O. Box 995
Jamaica Plain, MA  02130 (USA)
www.davidrovics.com (or http://members.aol.com/drovics/home.htm)
www.folkweb.com/davidrovics
www.mp3.com/davidrovics

"Individuals have international duties which transcend the national 
obligations of obedienceâ?¦Therefore [individual citizens] have the duty 
to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity 
from occurring" -- Nuremberg War Crime Tribunal, 1950


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