Lailly And Abdullah

G G Abdullah is a student at Balkh University D C G Forty miles south of the Uzbek line G Lost his heart to a girl named Lailly D C G With Pashtun eyes and a crooked little smile G Late in the evening, they climbed the scaffolding D C G Smoked cigarettes in the dying light G "Hazara man from the Bamiyan land D C G Who were you before tonight?" G "Well they killed my mother and they raped my sisters D C G Father died in the civil war G I hid in the well and when the bleeding stopped D C G I didn't want to be a soldier anymore G "So I moved to the city to get an education D C G Find a profession where no one dies G I was trying to paint the big blue mosque D C G In Mazar-i when I saw your eyes." G G "I lost my father in the civil war too," D C G Lailly says with a sigh and another smoke G "Mother said he was a beautiful man D C G With a Kandahar laugh on a Tajik joke Em C G "Late some nights I almost remember D The way he held me in the morning sun G Singing 'Lailly, Lailly, my pretty little girl D C G Your beautiful life has just begun.'" G D C G G G Well there is no cover for an educated Pashtun D C G Woman in the Mullah Ali's eyes G He followed them down when they were crossing the river D C Em Shot three times and he missed twice C D G "Well you wanna have hope but you gotta be real," D C G With a snap of a glove, the doctor said G "I'm sure Abdullah was a really nice guy D C G And now he's just one more Afghan dead." Em But she waited through the night C G And waited through the morning G D On the third day, he woke up from a dream D C G The first thing he saw was Pashtun eyes D C G The first thing he heard was Lailly screaming G "Allahu Akbar up in the heaven D C G Keeping fools like you alive," she said G The bullet missed his heart by a good three inches D C G In another two weeks, he was out of bed G Lailly and Abdullah, they're doing alright D C G Got a tiny little house where the children wait G He's working every day as a welder's apprentice D C G Putting steel plates on the Hairatan gate Em C G In the cold winter night, she holds him closer D Dreaming in Dari til the morning light G Thinking life is a terrifying beautiful thing D C G Twenty miles north of the Uzbek line D C G D C G