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If prayer would do it, I’d prayIf reading esteemed thinkers would do it, I’d be halfway through the Patriarchs.If discourse would do it, I’d be sitting with His Holiness every…
May 17, 2009
Goodbye, Mexico
posted April 17, 2019
My friend Beth DeSombre posted on my Facebook page this week. She said she dreamed that Katryna and I had released a new album called Goodbye, Mexico, and that it had great songs on it. So of course, songs needed to be written.
Goodbye Mexico
I remember Mexico
Though I have never been
I’ve only seen the places
That they keep the tourists in
I’ve never seen my neighbor
And we’ve never shared a meal
I’ve never met their dogs in the park
Still I say that I remember
Because you told me stories
And filled me full of pictures
Of a sun-soaked territory
And I always thought we’d ride there
And sleep under the moon
But would be some other century.
So goodbye Mexico,
Goodbye Notre Dame
Eight hundred years
Are swallowed by the flames
Why do I cry when no one has died?
Not a tree, not a bird, not a child?
I went to Notre Dame once
But I could not get in
The lines were way too long and so
I said I’d come again
I thought there’d be a next time
For the windows and the saints
Now I wish I’d kept my place in line.
Well, I knew another church once
That burned down to the ground
All our sacred treasures
Were lost and never found
And for years we stood and looked
At the hole where she had been
Wondering how she could rise again
So goodbye Mexico,
Goodbye Notre Dame
Eight hundred years
Are swallowed by the flames
Why do I cry when no one has died?
Not a tree, not a bird, not a child?
And there are other churches
That people burned on purpose
Cause their imaginations
Can’t see below the surface
There’s hatred now among us
I will call it what it is
Makes you want to give up and go home
But I drove down to the desert with cans of food and water
And I hoped they would be found
By a woman and her daughter
Who stood in line and waited for a turn that might not come
Cause that would be a different century
So goodbye Mexico,
Goodbye Ellis Isle
Centuries of amnesty
Are being put on trial
Why do I cry when no one has died?
Not a tree, not a bird, not a child?
Nerissa Nields
April 16-17, 2019
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©2019 Peter Quince Publishing
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A terrific song. Now you have to follow up with the rest of the songs for Beth’s dream Nields’ album. This song, btw, fits right in with my theme tonight of “Songs of the Spirit” for THE FOLK REVIVAL. I’m tempted to play it.
Thank you for sharing, Nerissa.
Great stuff, Nerissa, and thank you. Not a tree, not a bird, not a child. Love the way the themes come ’round through the course of the song!
Powerful, important writing in gorgeous song. I agree with Elaine; the way the themes weave through the song is fantastic, especially some other century, the places in line, and the chorus. I love this song. Thanks for writing and sharing this.
Thank you, Kathryn! So glad you were there when we debuted it!
Such a powerful song! Thank you so much for writing and singing this