David Rovics

Jenin

David Rovics


Tom: F

F      C               Dm
Child, what will you remember
C                              F
When you recall your sixteenth year
    F               C         Dm
The horrid sound of helicopter gunships
    C                                F
The rumble of the tanks as they drew near
Bb                           F
As the world went about it’s business
      F              C           Dm
And I burned another tank of gasoline
    F         C             Dm
The Dow Jones lost a couple points that day
               Bb            C         F
While you were crying in the City of Jenin

[Verse]
F             C                 Dm
Did they even give your parents warning
C                                     F
Before they blew the windows out with shells
F               C                    Dm
While you hid inside the high school basement
C                            F
Amidst the ringing of church bells
Bb                                         F
As you watched your teacher crumble by the doorway
       F                 C               Dm
And in England they were toasting to the Queen
F           C            Dm
You were so far from the thoughts of so many
Bb             C         F
Huddled in the City of Jenin

[Verse]
         F               C               Dm
Were you thinking of the taunting of the soldiers
          C                          F
Or of the shit they smeared upon the walls
         F                C            Dm
Were you thinking of your cousin after torture
        C                                F
Or Tel Aviv and it’s glittering shopping malls
         Bb                                 F
When the fat men in their mansions say that you don’t want peace
F       C                Dm
Did you wonder what they mean
       F              C                 Dm
As you sat amidst the stench inside the darkness
Bb               C         F
In the shattered City of Jenin

[Verse]
F         C            Dm
What went through your mind on that day
       C                             F
At the sight of your mother’s vacant eyes
F          C               Dm
As she lay still among the rubble
C                               F
Beneath the blue Middle Eastern skies
       Bb                        F
As you stood upon this bulldozed building
           F                     C        Dm
Beside the settlements and their hills so green
        F                 C            Dm
As your tears gave way to grim determination
          Bb           C         F
Among the ruins of the City of Jenin

[Verse]
    F          C       Dm
And why should anybody wonder
       C          F
As you stepped on board
    F       C              Dm
The crowded bus across the Green Line
        C                                  F
And you reached inside your jacket for the cord
         Bb                                F
Were you thinking of your neighbors buried bodies
F               C              Dm
As you made the stage for this scene
       F           C                    Dm
As you set off the explosives that were strapped around your waist
         Bb              C         F
Were you thinking of the City of Jenin

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