Our Own Piece of Ground

AlterEgo_UK

My submission for an album (currently being compiled - link to follow) to fund some help for Refugees,

The words (see below) came to me first for this and then I added some music and sound fx,

This track was done mainly in Korg Gadget and Cubasis on my iPad.

Lyrics: (c)2015 Colin Powell

Our Own Piece of Ground
by Colin Powell

Get me out of this place I don't want to be here
The sounds of the battle are getting too near
I'm scared for my life and my family's too
Find me some peace is what I must do

I don't have much money to give to the man
I beg steal and borrow and scrape what I can
The boat is so full and yet they still come
A new start for many, an ending for some

All out at sea and surrounded by water
Will we survive now we've escaped the slaughter?
Some of us made it across to dry land
Some of us didn't and let go our hand

Our journey's not over, a long way to go
Where we'll end up we really don't know
We just keep on walking and praying together
We pray for a peace that is lasting for ever

We're crossing the borders, we crawl through the wire
We huddle together in front of the fire
We cannot lose hope, we cannot give in
We hope you will help us, our kith and our kin

We pray we'll find love and compassion in time
Whatever our creed, we've committed no crime
We just want our families to be safe and sound
With somewhere to stay and our own piece of ground

But please be aware, all is not as it seems
Not everyone here follows the same dream…

JohnnyGoodyear

Good addition to the conversation Colin. Reminds me of

Home
(by Somali poet Warsan Shire)

no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well

your neighbours running faster than you
breath bloody in their throats
the boy you went to school with
who kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factory
is holding a gun bigger than his body
you only leave home
when home won’t let you stay.

no one leaves home unless home chases you
fire under feet
hot blood in your belly
it’s not something you ever thought of doing
until the blade burnt threats into
your neck
and even then you carried the anthem under
your breath
only tearing up your passport in an airport toilets
sobbing as each mouthful of paper
made it clear that you wouldn’t be going back.

you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one burns their palms
under trains
beneath carriages
no one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truck
feeding on newspaper unless the miles travelled
means something more than journey.
no one crawls under fences
no one wants to be beaten
pitied

no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough

the
go home blacks
refugees
dirty immigrants
asylum seekers
sucking our country dry
niggers with their hands out
they smell strange
savage
messed up their country and now they want
to mess ours up
how do the words
the dirty looks
roll off your backs
maybe because the blow is softer
than a limb torn off

or the words are more tender
than fourteen men between
your legs
or the insults are easier
to swallow
than rubble
than bone
than your child body
in pieces.
i want to go home,
but home is the mouth of a shark
home is the barrel of the gun
and no one would leave home
unless home chased you to the shore
unless home told you
to quicken your legs
leave your clothes behind
crawl through the desert
wade through the oceans
drown
save
be hunger
beg
forget pride
your survival is more important

no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying-
leave,
run away from me now
i dont know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here.

AlterEgo_UK

Thanks @JohnnyGoodyear
I am not a man of many words but sometimes they just come!

SpookyZoo

@JohnnyGoodyear said:

Home
(by Somali poet Warsan Shire)

Humbling words.

mkell424

Great lyrics. You really put their plight into focus.

AlterEgo_UK

Thanks, @mkell424.
I think we in Europe may also have a "plight" soon. I wonder just how many of this huge migration are using their families as camouflage and have a specific reason for choosing to go to Europe rather than other more peaceful Arab countries much closer to their own culture?

mkell424

@AlterEgo_UK I don't think they like living in the Middle East. Europe and the United States is where most people want to live because of the type of government.

mrufino1

I don't want to get into a political discussion (and an not equipped to do so anyway) but I just wanted to say that those are powerful words @AlterEgo_UK, and thanks for sharing that poem @johnnygoodyear .

[Deleted User]

@AlterEgo_UK said:
I wonder just how many of this huge migration are using their families as camouflage and have a specific reason for choosing to go to Europe rather than other more peaceful Arab countries much closer to their own culture?

Maybe, but it's a positive move by the countries opening their arms to refugees - lead by example and show how a peaceful, kinder World would work, one that we could all share. You'll make more friends and change more radical minds this way, than by dropping bombs on their families.

JeffChasteen

monzo said it best;
I agree with his wise and compassionate words.