Stop it (Ground Zero)

1 week ago by @cmharwood89

Liner Notes

A bit of backstory -

So, as a general rule, I don't cry at movies. Sometimes I'd like to, but that's just not my mode.

The exception is when I went to see "From Ground Zero" this week. https://www.watermelonpictures.com/films/from-ground-zero

For those who don't know, it's an anthology of 22 short films (many documentary in nature) that were directed and shot in Gaza over the last 18 months.

For all the resilience, resourcefulness, and bravery on display through the films, it remains one of the most heart rending pieces of cinema I've every seen. It's the kind of film that makes you walk away with a profound sense of "I don't think we're the good guys anymore, if we ever were".

My wife is Palesinian. Her family is in Palestine. I've been, and I've seen the hundreds of inequities big and small that Palestinians have thrust upon them every day. I'll tell anybody with a mind open enough to hear: it's apartheid in the best of times and genocide in the worst. But the film showcases a people living through man-made famine, indiscriminate bombings, and generational displacement - and they're dancing. It's incredible, moving, beautiful, and so sad.

I took a few of the images from the films and wrote around them. Some are merged, others reframed a little, and some expanded to include the stories of other people I know from the West Bank and Gaza. Poetic license and all that, but I tried not to change the stories.

Anyway, this started out as a skirmish earlier today, but went way long for me. It took about two hours to write, then I didn't have a chance to record a demo till tonight, so it's cheating - but I'm posting this as my "Stop It!" skirmish entry.

It remains a rough demo - especially the bridge. It's one of the more complicated song's I've written, and I'm still getting comfortable with the timing - lots of varied line lengths.

But it's FAWM, so here you go. Go watch the movie.

#acousticonetake #skirmish #political #protest #folk

Lyrics

She had a garden
It was filled with all the colors from her town
She tried to paint them
So their greens and yellow faces may never fade to brown

But they don't bloom
Can't water them with salt
and all the paintings burned
Like the linens in her room

And the night
doesn't bring her restful sleep
Just a question that she can't keep to herself
Won't you stop it?
--------------------------------------------------------

He had a family
Three brothers and his parents filled with life
Till they were buried
Air filled with dust ; the smells of dinner cooked that night

The buzzing drones
They cover up the sound
His neighbors gathering round
To dig toward his ringing phone

Now it's just him
His head still bandaged tight
While he digs for others every night and thinks
Won't you stop it?
---------------------------------------------
His tent became concrete
Where he'd landed hard when he was just a boy
He's a little bent by age
And the weight of a single suitcase saved from the camp they'd just destroyed

He's under canvas tonight
His case unpacked to show
The photos of the groves
Where his parent's made their life

He hopes to go back
Keeps a key next to his heart
He's wondered since he started seeking refuge
Won't you stop it?
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bridge:
If you, if you couldn't eat now,
Would you just bite your own tongue?
Is your appetite satisfied now-
That you see what we've done?
------------------------------------------------------------
She had a marker
Her children asked why she used it on their skin.
It's a graveyard out there
How else are they to bury us as kin?

They tried to scrub away
The tattooed lines
That gave them bad dreams
With water rations from that day

But she writes them out again
And makes them swear
They won't bear the risk of dying without names
Won't you stop it?
--------------------------------------------
He was to be married
To a girl he'd loved since they were only kids
There's ring he carries
On his left hand to remind him of a life so nearly his

He sits in the rain
To speak about the cost
And mourn a future lost
For some nation's ugly gains

And he weeps
To think that he'd be free
If people just like we are had the heart
To stop it.

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