
If I don't speak, If I don't look,
maybe he'll go away
If I don't read, If I forget,
maybe he'll go away.
But I know they're rocking babies
They're rocking babies to sleep
In Fallujah
They're rocking babies,
They're rocking babies who sleep
In their graves
One last hope that change would come
Through ballot boxes on the run
Naiveté an abdication
Insurgents charge for what is owed and
We will reap what has been sowed
Until the seventh generation
They're rocking babies to sleep
Babies to sleep, babies to sleep
In Fallujah
While bombs fell on their ancient homes
After fairy tales and free speech zones
The votes were cast and some were even counted
The mission flew, and the fools they lie
Torturers left hope to die
Thus was freedom and democracy exported
They're rocking babies to sleep
Old men who sleep and young girls who sleep
In their graves
How many children of the occupied
Grow up with scars that they can't hide?
Each fateful second burned upon their memory
An invasion for the privateers
The whole world knows the whole world hears
The screams of an illegal occupation
They're rocking babies to sleep
Young men who sleep, women who sleep
In their graves
The father's wail
The mother's cry
The child's last breath
Will split the night
I close my eyes it's there again
It's there in my imagining
But I am not the one
Who's rocking babies to sleep
The email news stops me cold
Fires my sight
Brings my blood to boil
I close my eyes it's there again
The terrorist, the war president
I am not the one
Who's rocking babies to sleep
In Fallujah
Is insurgency another word for living?
No war over empire
No war over empire …
Notes
Many thanks to Teresa Healy for permission to add this song to the Union
Songs collection.
Teresa is a singer-songwriter and labour researcher working for the
Canadian Union of Public Employees. She lives in Ottawa, Canada. She
writes:
"Each year, many people mark November 2nd as "All Souls' Day" - a day to
remember the dead. On November 2nd, 2004, George W. Bush was returned
to the White House for his second term as U.S. president. Immediately, he
launched a brutal attach on the Iraqi city of Fallujah. I wrote this song
because we cannot and will not forget what he has done."
All Souls' Day
A song by Teresa Healy - 2004