Paper Lines On A Table

Paroles de « Paper Lines On A Table »

Verse

Radio come on at quarter past five,
man a talk 'bout a map pon a table,
seh dem unfold it from nineteen-forty,
Alsace, Lorraine, Luxembourg,
draw out like it never sell yet.

Verse

Mi nuh know dem place, mi know dem sound,
same way mi know Shrewsbury an' Bath.
Eighteen-seventy-one, di man seh,
nineteen-forty, di man seh,
like a border is a opinion.

Chorus

Paper lines on a table.
Paper lines on a table.

Verse

Mi grandmother brother gone a France,
nineteen-sixteen, from Port Antonio,
British West Indies Regiment pon him sleeve,
him never come back fi di Christmas,
him never come back at all.

Verse

Six hundred man froze up
inna one night a cold at Halifax,
over a hundred lose a hand or a foot,
dat is what di history book seh,
some a dem dig trench, some a dem carry shell,
nineteen year old, seventeen.

Chorus

Paper lines on a table.
Paper lines on a table.

[Toast]
So di man have a pencil an' a long steel rule,
an' him draw pon di paper like di paper is a field,
an' di paper nuh bleed, an' di paper nuh cry,
an' di rule run straight through Thiepval an' Arras,
an' him never seh one name, him seh territory,
him seh historic right, him seh di line was ours,
an' every name pon di map a name pon a stone,
an' di stone cut deeper than di pencil.

Verse

Mi hol' di newspaper up to di lamp.
It thin. It light. Yuh see di bulb through it.
Nuff weight fi somet'ing so light.
Mi count di four corner, one, two, three, four.

Chorus

Paper lines on a table.
Paper lines on a table.
Paper lines on a table.

Outro

Transistor pon di amp a whisper now,
mi turn it down two notch wid mi thumb,
smoke grey inna di lampshade, forty-five dem pon di shelf,
an' di page still open pon mi knee.
Mi fold it inna four.