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?

[Verse 2]
          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.

[Verse 3]
        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.

[Verse 4]
 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.

[Interlude]
| Am         | Dm         | G          | C     E    |

[Verse 5]
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.

[Verse 6]
  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.

[Interlude]
| Am         | Dm         | G          | C     E    |

[Verse 7]
          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.

[Verse 8]
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

[Verse 9]
   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.

[Verse 10]
      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 [Outro] birth.

[Outro]
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