You say "we remember"
tell me how?
you say "never again"
do you mean it now?
get off your knees and breathe the air
who knows what you'll find down there
your eyes still say you do not care
tell me how?
You can't feel the pain of others
tell me why?
only tend to your own fields
while mine die
but the rain that washed my fields away
will not spare yours on judgment day
still no fear do you betray
tell me how?
Tell me how your hands remain
so clean and so still
while mine tremble like a frightened child
doing God's will
The Lord gives and He takes away
is that true?
I must question His methods
in regards to you
I'd rather lose my life today
than have my humanity taken away
how do you keep the chills at bay
tell me how?
Tell me how your soul is free
to replicate while it can
while mine stays dark and buried
like a blight upon the land
You say "we remember"
tell me how?
you say "never again"
do you mean it now?
get off your knees and breathe the air
who knows what you'll find down there
your eyes still say you do not care
tell me how?
Tell me how your hands remain
so clean and so still
while mine tremble like a frightened child
doing God's will
tell me how?
you say "never again"
do you mean it now?
get off your knees and breathe the air
who knows what you'll find down there
your eyes still say you do not care
tell me how?
You can't feel the pain of others
tell me why?
only tend to your own fields
while mine die
but the rain that washed my fields away
will not spare yours on judgment day
still no fear do you betray
tell me how?
Tell me how your hands remain
so clean and so still
while mine tremble like a frightened child
doing God's will
The Lord gives and He takes away
is that true?
I must question His methods
in regards to you
I'd rather lose my life today
than have my humanity taken away
how do you keep the chills at bay
tell me how?
Tell me how your soul is free
to replicate while it can
while mine stays dark and buried
like a blight upon the land
You say "we remember"
tell me how?
you say "never again"
do you mean it now?
get off your knees and breathe the air
who knows what you'll find down there
your eyes still say you do not care
tell me how?
Tell me how your hands remain
so clean and so still
while mine tremble like a frightened child
doing God's will
Contributed by CCG/AWS Staff - 2007/9/17 - 22:50
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Note for non-Italian users: Sorry, though the interface of this website is translated into English, most commentaries and biographies are in Italian and/or in other languages like French, German, Spanish, Russian etc.
© 2004 Tom Flannery and Lorne Clarke
a SongaWeek.com production
www.rwandasongs.com
Clarke & Flannery love to hear your thoughts on the song cycle. Email them to anthracite@rocketmail.com.
Truth is, there is no explanation for the Rwandan genocide. What there is in abundance, however, is ignorance. If these songs make just one person dig a little deeper, then we've made our money back, so to speak. We've touched upon specific pieces of the horror, but don't even pretend to be able to understand it from the Rwandan point of view. We're observers from afar. Interested, heartbroken observers....but merely observers nonetheless. Please keep that in mind.
All of these songs are solo acoustic performances...recorded live with a digital 8 track studio in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The full lyrics are available, as are the complete recordings in both mp3 and quicktime formats. Notes for each song are provided, giving some insight into the creative process....and explaining where explanations are necessary. The entire project is only available via the internet. There is no "official" CD of this music. This is strictly an "online" project.
This is partly due to economics, but also because once a CD is released, it can't be changed. We're likely to add new songs here at any time.
Individual essays are also posted, because some ideas that we have probably can't be conveyed using the song form alone. These too will probably grow in time. Also, a brand new play by playwright Tom Flannery called Rwandan Eyes is available exclusively here.
Everything here is free. Listen, distribute freely, discuss.
Do everything but steal.
Tom Flannery & Lorne Clarke.
ABOUT THE SONG
Evil cloaked with the authenticity of religion is perhaps the most insidious type of all. As in the Holocaust during WW II, to some the killing was somehow mandated by the very word of God, proving once again how absolutely nothing is sacred when it comes to power grabbing.
The words "Never Again" were obviously not meant to be taken literally. On the other hand, the "We Remember" part proves only a faulty memory, not a long one.