I heard about you on the radio
As I was driving home.
They were talking about a photograph of you
Being carried by a man
Probably your father.
You looked quite faint
Which is no wonder
Since your feet had been severed
And were dangling from your legs.
Iraqi girl.
They talked about how that photo
Was too strong to put in the newspaper
It might put people off their breakfast
So they cropped the photograph
They cut off your feet
So that people ? the "over 50% of people" ?
Who approve of this war
Could eat their breakfast
Without facing your horror.
Iraqi girl.
Afterwards I found myself wondering:
Which cut was the most obscene?
Which cut was the most obscene?
I wondered if you had survived
Or what future lay before you
Even if you had.
If you had been here in Sydney
They would have rushed you
To Royal North Shore Hospital
And your feet would have been
Sewn back on with microsurgery,
Or at the very least
You would have been fitted with
Prosthetic feet to walk on.
I wonder what lies before
An Iraqi girl
With no feet?
As I was driving home.
They were talking about a photograph of you
Being carried by a man
Probably your father.
You looked quite faint
Which is no wonder
Since your feet had been severed
And were dangling from your legs.
Iraqi girl.
They talked about how that photo
Was too strong to put in the newspaper
It might put people off their breakfast
So they cropped the photograph
They cut off your feet
So that people ? the "over 50% of people" ?
Who approve of this war
Could eat their breakfast
Without facing your horror.
Iraqi girl.
Afterwards I found myself wondering:
Which cut was the most obscene?
Which cut was the most obscene?
I wondered if you had survived
Or what future lay before you
Even if you had.
If you had been here in Sydney
They would have rushed you
To Royal North Shore Hospital
And your feet would have been
Sewn back on with microsurgery,
Or at the very least
You would have been fitted with
Prosthetic feet to walk on.
I wonder what lies before
An Iraqi girl
With no feet?
inviata da Riccardo Venturi - 19/8/2005 - 23:08
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Lyrics and Music by Rosemary Faire
Testo e musica di Rosemary Faire
Da/From: http://polsong.gcal.ac.uk/songs/faire.html
"Driving home from work one evening I heard a radio discussion of the cropping of a photograph. It disturbed me deeply. The next evening I had the opportunity to meditate and I felt a song wanting to be written which emerged the next day. When my friends heard it they said it was 'too strong'. But I found willing listeners at a Truth Mandala workshop (Macy & Brown, 1998) concerning the war and our feelings about it. The story of this Iraqi girl is continuing to influence my life." -Rosey Faire.
Macy, J. & Brown, M.Y. (1998). Coming Back to Life: Practices to Reconnect Our Lives, Our World, Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers.
Rosey Faire, Community Music Therapist, Sydney