This Side of Paradise
No one ever asks, how are you feeling?
No one ever really asks, how are you feeling?
Well today I feel I want to die
I saw a man point his gun at a child
And I wondered how it could be this way
And I wanted so much to make him pay

No one ever asks, how are you feeling?
No one ever really asks, how are you feeling?
A friend just told me how his friend was killed
In a prison cell in an Israeli jail
And how they had planned to paint his kitchen one day
Until his friend was arrested and summer never came

No one ever asks, how are you feeling?
No one ever really asks, how are you feeling?
Well today I feel I want to kill someone
As a mother’s tears fall at the death of her son
And I hear of how some soldier wouldn’t let her see
Him one last time before they buried his body

No one ever asks, how are you feeling?
No one ever really asks, how are you feeling?
I went to a conference in a West Bank town
And we all stood up and people’s heads bowed down
I asked Emma if this was for a national anthem
And she smiled and said yes as a minute’s silence began

No one ever asks, how are you feeling?
No one ever really asks, how are you feeling?
Well I’m feeling like I’ve seen everything that’s under the sun
And I live each day as it it’s my last one
And I pray one day that all of this may end
And I’ve had enough of too many false friends

No one ever asks, how are you feeling?
No one ever really asks, how are you feeling?
Well today I’m going down to Tel Aviv
I’ve got some pain inside that I want to relieve
‘Cause I’ve seen too many of my people die
To let it rest, this side of Paradise

Holy holy holy Lord
God of power and might
Heaven and earth are full of your glory
Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest

(c) nigel parry, 1994. all rights reserved. live recording from k5m cafe, ramallah, west bank, mid-1995.
Arabic translation and version coming.

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e-mail: nparry@baraka.org | nparry@admin.birzeit.edu | nigelparry@hotmail.com (remote)