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When I was young it all seemed like a game |
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Living here brought no sense of shame |
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But now I'm older I've come to understand |
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Once we had houses |
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Once we had land |
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They rained down bullets on us as our homes collapsed |
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We lay beneath the rubble terrified |
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Hoping.. Dare we dream? |
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We gave up waiting |
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For us, to dream is still a dream |
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When I woke up, the house was broken stones |
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We suddenly had nothing |
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And nothing's changed |
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We live, eight people, in this overcrowded heat |
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Factory-farmed animals living in our own sweat |
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Living like this is all my baby brother ever knew |
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The world does nothing. What can we do? |
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We will kick the ball |
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We will skip the rope |
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We will play outside. Be careful |
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We will paint and draw. We will say our prayers |
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Outside the pitiless sun bleaches the broken streets |
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The darkness drops in the evening like an iron door |
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The men play cards under torchlight |
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The women stay inside |
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Hell can erupt in a moment day or night |
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You ask for trouble if you stray too close to the wall |
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My father died ..feeding the birds |
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Mum goes in front of me to check for soldiers |
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For every hot-head stone ten come back |
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For every hot-head stone a hundred come back |
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For every rocket fired the drones come back |
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For thirteen years the roads have all been closed |
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We're isolated. We're denied medical supplies |
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Fuel and work are scarce. They build houses on our farms |
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The old men weep. The young men take up arms. |
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We're packed like chickens in this town of block cement |
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I get headache from the diesel. When it rains, the sewers too |
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I had no idea what martyrdom meant |
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Until my older brother.. my older brother |
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I'm sorry. I can't continue. |
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You sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind, it is said |
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When people know they have no future |
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Can we blame them if we cannot tame them? |
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And when their hopes and dreams are broken |
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And they feel they might as well be dead |
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As they go, will we forgive them |
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If they take us with them? |
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Stay close |
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Stay home |
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Stay calm |
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Have faith |
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With the love of our family we can rise above anything |
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Someday surely someone must help us |
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With the love of our family we can rise above anything |
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Someday surely someone must help us |
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Even now we will go to school |
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Even now we will dream to dream |
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Someday surely someone must help us |
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Nothing's ever simple - that's for sure |
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There are grieving mothers on both sides of the wire |
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And everyone deserves a chance to feel the future just might be bright |
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But any way you look at it - whichever point of view |
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For us to have to live like this |
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It just ain't right |
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It just ain't right |
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It just ain't right |
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We all want peace and freedom that's for sure |
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But peace won't come from standing on our necks |
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Everyone deserves a chance to feel the future just might be bright |
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But any way you look at this - whichever point of view |
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For us to have to live like this |
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It just ain't right |
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It just ain't right |
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It just ain't right |
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It's like a nightmare rose up slouching towards Bethlehem |
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Like a nightmare rose up from this small strip of land |
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Slouching towards Bethlehem |
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It's like a nightmare rose up from this small strip of land |
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Slouching towards Bethlehem |
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Stay close |
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Stay home |
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Have faith |
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I can't know what twist of history did this to me |
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It's like a nightmare |
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With the love of our family |
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We can rise above anything |
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Some day surely someone must help us... |