Captain said to the soldier,
don't you worry ahead
Half these peasants can't write or read
They only want to grow the
corn they need
And if a stranger tries to make them
change their ways
He'll be betrayed
And his body will be burned,
either alive or dead
Like a secret book that must not be read
By a people who are never
to be taught to read
Because the book of law and order
is the only book they need
And those who live by the word
will die by the sword
The farmer was planting
his highest field,
he was sleeping on the hill
Captain, Captain,
I've seen their lap,
I've heard strangers talking
They were making their camp,
it's by the dry river that
they're hiding
Captain, I can show you one of them
sleeping there still
Where the dry river runs,
the soldiers took their time
He could not breathe or climb,
they ringed him with their guns
Two soldiers scrubbed the
school where he was shot
The poor man, who could not read,
might read in blood.
Mother, mother, see your son,
what do his wounds say?
Only he should not have gone,
not have gone to play,
Out beyond the streets we know,
out beyond the town,
Till the bullet that he sewed grew up
in a thousand guns to cut him down.
His body could have been cared
for alive or dead
He might have written books
that would have been read and read
By later generations
who would have learned to read
Because time to grow
is all a child's all a world needs
But where could he have found rest?
As a writer in the East
Hunted by secret police
Tortured till he confessed
But those who live by the word
Are tried by the sword
Here in the easy west
Where he could have lived at least
Writing books in peace
Well fed, well dressed
Out beyond the street we know
Out beyond the town
Till the bullets that he so grew up in
A thousand guns to cut him down
And yet the dead man
still is with his wounds alive
Will with his wounds survive
the dictator's will?
And the rich man's mind,
who when he does not give
To let the poor man live,
will turn and see behind
A man with a broken knife,
a man not pure or good,
A slaughtered man whose blood
pays for the rich man's life.
A slaughtered man whose blood
pays
for the rich man's life.
you