The Refugee

Am Dm I am a refugee now, I am running like mad G C E across a frosty green Poland, my head in a sack. Am Dm And the blood in my brain screaming "How did this happen?" G C E and "Where am I now?" Who is so blue in this freeze? Am Dm Who is so grey with the history, rain dancing all G C E on my face without mercy and the muscles relax. Am Dm And I just have to laugh through the loose teeth and tissue, G C E the symphony builds under your boot. Am Dm And the horns drool in harmony, dancers all swoon, G C E this is my bloody tune, my last gasp of the past. Am Dm My thorn in the side of the violence of time, G C E I won't scream, I won't writhe, I am laughing and burning. Am Dm Alive like a thornbush that grew in the hot G C E countryside, now the fire is high and I am not Am Dm consumed. Yes, this is the room, G C E this is the old song from memory, this is the sound of the Am Dm G C E Jew who refuses to die. | Am | Dm | G | C E | Am Dm April 4th, 1944, G C E I recall my old address no more. Am Dm I live day to day on the glossy dancefloor G C E of a wide countryside full of disappeared people. Am Dm I sleep in the churches, eat grass like a goat, G C E the calendar hangs on the wall of my memory. Am Dm My name is inscribed up the sleeve of my coat, G C E here I am. | Am | Dm | G | C E | Am Dm Take this document with you, the lines that I wrote G C E as I bled through the night in a strange rusted land. Am Dm I have ripped the page out, it is here in my hand, G C E here I am. Am Dm Person of the book but I have lost my page G C E like so many others I am left to inscribe Am Dm my own name on a torn one we will have a new book G C E scattered far across the expanses. The scrapbook Am Dm of signatures scrawled in forgotten, lost diaries, G C E texts to recite when time's bloody boot, dances Am Dm and kicks in the bone of our chest, like soft earth G C E and our ancient hoarse voices will echo in song. Am Dm And resound off the curve of a high stony ceiling, G C E the curve of the arch from our death to our birth. | Am | Dm | G | C E | | Am | Dm | G | C E | | Am | Dm | G | C E | | Am | Dm | G ||