Tell Me There's a Heaven...

[senoritafish]

I don't post song lyrics all that often, but I'm listening to this right now, and it seems appropriate for what's going on in the world. A reviewer at Amazon called this song "gentle appeal for a brighter day," but I get a much darker feeling from it, especially chilling given the melody and beautiful orchestration in the background.

The little girl she said to me
What are these things that I can see
Each night when I come home from school
When Mama calls me in for tea

Well, every night a baby dies
And every night a mama cries
What makes those men do what they do
To make that person black and blue

Grandpa says they're happy now
They sit with god,
In paradise
With angel's wings,
And still somehow
It makes me feel
Like ice

Tell me there's a heaven
Tell me that its true
Tell me there's a reason
That I'm seeing what I do
Tell me there's a heaven
Where all those people go
Tell me they're all happy now
Papa tell me that it's so

So do I tell her that it's true
That there's a place for me and you
Where hungry children smile and say
We wouldn't have no other way
Where every painful crack of bones
Is a step along the way
Where every wrong done
Is a game plan
To that great and joyful day

And I'm looking at the father and the son
And I'm looking at the mother and the daughter
And I'm watching them in tears of pain
And I'm watching them suffer
Don't tell that little girl
Tell me...

Tell me there's a heaven
Tell me that its true
Tell me there's a reason
That I'm seeing what I do
Tell me there's a heaven
Where all those people go
Tell me they're all happy now
Papa tell me that it's so...

Chris Rea, from The Road to Hell, 1992