Jenin - David Rovics

Oh, child, what will you remember

When you recall your sixteenth year

The horrid sound of helicopter gunships

The rumble of the tanks as they drew near

As the world went about it’s business

And I burned another tank of gasoline

The Dow Jones lost a couple points that day

While you were crying in the City of Jenin

Did they even give your parents warning

Before they blew the windows out with shells

While you hid inside the high school basement

Amidst the ringing of church bells

As you watched your teacher crumble by the doorway

And in England they were toasting to the Queen

You were so far from the thoughts of so many

Huddled in the City of Jenin

Were you thinking of the taunting of the soldiers

Or of the shit they smeared upon the walls

Were you thinking of your cousin after torture

Or Tel Aviv and it’s glittering shopping malls

When the fat men in their mansions say that you don’t want peace

Did you wonder what they mean

As you sat amidst the stench inside the darkness

In the shattered City of Jenin

What went through your mind on that day

At the sight of your mother’s vacant eyes

As she lay still among the rubble

Beneath the blue Middle Eastern skies

As you stood upon this bulldozed building

Beside the settlements and their hills so green

As your tears gave way to grim determination

Among the ruins of the City of Jenin

And why should anybody wonder

As you stepped on board

The crowded bus across the Green Line

And you reached inside your jacket for the cord

Were you thinking of your neighbors buried bodies

As you made the stage for this scene

As you set off the explosives that were strapped around your waist

Were you thinking of the City of Jenin