Gaza

When I was young it all seemed like a game

Living here brought no sense of shame

But now I'm older I've come to understand

Once we had houses

Once we had land

They rained down bullets on us as our homes collapsed

We lay beneath the rubble terrified

Hoping

Dare we dream?

We gave up waiting

For us, to dream is still a dream

When I woke up, the house was broken stones

We suddenly had nothing

And nothing's changed

We live, eight people, in this overcrowded heat

Factory-farmed animals living in our own sweat

Living like this is all my baby brother ever knew

The world does nothing

What can we do?

We will kick the ball

We will skip the rope

We will play outside

Be careful

We will paint and draw

We will say our prayers

Outside the pitiless sun bleaches the broken streets

The darkness drops in the evening like an iron door

The men play cards under torchlight

The women stay inside

Hell can erupt in a moment day or night

You ask for trouble if you stray too close to the wall

My father died

Feeding the birds

Mum goes in front of me to check for soldiers

For every hot-head stone ten come back

For every hot-head stone a hundred come back

For every rocket fired the drones come back

For thirteen years the roads have all been closed

We're isolated

We're denied medical supplies

Fuel and work are scarce

They build houses on our farms

The old men weep

The young men take up arms.

We're packed like chickens in this town of block cement

I get headache from the diesel

When it rains, the sewers too

I had no idea what martyrdom meant

Until my older brother, my older brother

I'm sorry, I can't continue

You sow the wind, you reap the whirlwind, it is said

When people know they have no future

Can we blame them if we cannot tame them?

And when their hopes and dreams are broken

And they feel they might as well be dead

As they go, will we forgive them

If they take us with them?

Stay close

Stay home

Stay calm

Have faith

With the love of our family we can rise above anything

Someday surely someone must help us

With the love of our family we can rise above anything

Someday surely someone must help us

Even now we will go to school

Even now we will dream to dream

Someday surely someone must help us

Nothing's ever simple, that's for sure

There are grieving mothers on both sides of the wire

And everyone deserves a chance to feel the future just might be bright

But any way you look at it, whichever point of view

For us to have to live like this

It just ain't right

It just ain't right

It just ain't right

We all want peace and freedom that's for sure

But peace won't come from standing on our necks

Everyone deserves a chance to feel the future just might be bright

But any way you look at this, whichever point of view

For us to have to live like this

It just ain't right

It just ain't right

It just ain't right

It's like a nightmare rose up slouching towards Bethlehem

Like a nightmare rose up from this small strip of land

Slouching towards Bethlehem

It's like a nightmare rose up from this small strip of land

Slouching towards Bethlehem

Stay close

Stay home

Have faith

I can't know what twist of history did this to me

It's like a nightmare

With the love of our family

We can rise above anything

Someday surely someone must help us