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War Song

from When I Died by Geoff Sanborn

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Lyrics: Randall Jarrell, Wilfred Owen, Walt Whitman
Music: Geoff Sanborn

lyrics

From my mother's sleep I fell into the state
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze
Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters
And when I died, they washed me out of the turret with a hose
(Randall Jarrell, "Death of the Ball Turret Gunner")

Dim through panes of thick green light, as under a green sea I saw him drowning
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, he plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning
And when he died, I marched behind the wagon that we flung him in
(from Wilfred Owen, "Dulce Et Decorum Est")

A sight in camp in the daybreak gray and dim, as slow I walk in the cool fresh air
Along the path near the hospital tent, three forms on stretchers I see lying there
And on the dead, the grey and heavy blanket covering all
Curious I halt, then with light fingers lift it off

Who are you, man so gaunt and grim, with flesh all sunken about the eyes?
Then to the second, a boy with cheeks still red, who are you my child?
Then to the third, a face neither old nor young, beautiful yellow-white
I think this face is the face of the Christ, dead and divine and the brother of all and here again he lies
(from Walt Whitman, "A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Grey and Dim")

credits

from When I Died, released October 15, 2014
Instruments and vocals: Geoff Sanborn

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Geoff Sanborn Northampton, Massachusetts

B. 1965, bred in Maine, mystery to himself.

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