Grandma's Battlecry - Irene Paul, barbara Tilson

It's blowing in the wind again

It's drifting in the rain

Before the dead have moldered yet

Or wounded healed their pain

I am so old, my grandsons,

That I remember when

I marched to hail the Armistice

I was barely ten

That was the war to end all wars
To save democracy
Praise God, they said,
We've won the peace
For all eternity
I marched for Spain when Some years passed
And marched and marched and then
Another war to end all wars
And So I marched again

I marched in Minneapolis
Chicago and Duluth
In San Francisco and New York
I marched to shout the truth
I marched in Hiroshima
And knealt before a stash
Of tens of millions bones of people
Atomized to ash
And with the distant rumble
Of new regiments of men
I read the warning on the tomb
"This must not be again"

Chorus:
I marched to staunch Korea's blood
I marched for Vietnam
I marched to stop the napalm and
I marched to stop the bomb
I marched and marched and marched, Oh Lord
I'm sure I've done my due
I marched since I was barely ten
And now I'm seventy-two

I should be lying in the sun
Or dreaming in the grass
But how, when generals everywhere
Are polishing their brass
Entranced with dreams of four-star roles
So help me, lord, they're glad
It's said that whom the gods destroy
They first must render mad

Their burning eyes see no-man's land
And armies poised for action
And you, my warm and loving ones,
You're merely an abstraction

It's geopolitics again
And oh, with what finesse
The players push their pawns about
These masterminds of chess
How cunningly they plot each move
How skillfully they spar
And checkmate one another
Like the masters that they are

How stimulating, how intense
A world to lose or gain
Except for one dismaying fact
The players are insane
Controlled, dispassionate they play
This game that madness spawns
And I can't even look away
My children are the pawns

[Repeat Chorus]

Some people keep on fighting
When they've lost an arm or leg
Some still keep up the struggle
When they're fragile as an egg
I've heard men rasping, "I object!"
With voices turned to gravel
I've seen a woman raise a fist
Who couldn't lift a gavel

And even with a broken heart
One still can make a stand
So lead, my children, lead the way
Reach back and take my hand
We'll march again, confound them all
Don't quibble at my age
I'll shield you with my brittle bones
I'll nourish you with rage

[Repeat Chorus]

Disk