Bogle Eric - Two Strong Arms lyrics

Two Strong Arms -Eric Bogle In the still heat of the afternoon Kritos was laid to rest in the dry and dusty red soil of Australia As the Mulberry and Cypress bloomed beneath the mountain crests so far away in Macedonia The children of his heart and the children of his blood In sorrow and in silence and in pride, around him stood All his sons and daughters with their daughters and their sons, The Family of the man with two strong arms Born a peasant's son on a mountain farm where a thin and grudging earth made hunger a gray ghost at every meal where life was just a grinding stone of poverty and d**h that crushed young and old alike beneath the wheel So before the wheel could turn with his family and his wife Kristos came down from the mountains searching for a better life Bringing only hopes and dreams with him to the distant southern land And a brave and willing heart, and two strong arms In a West Australian country town Kristos found a job for men willing to work hard and bend their backs Cutting the lofty gum trees down, clearing brush and scrub Where speaking English mattered less than a good sharp axe Driven by his dreams as the hard years came and went Kristos bent his back to every daylight hour that got sent How many golden wheat fields grow? how many western farms? The rich harvest of the man with two strong arms He worked to keep his family fed and clothed to give his kids the chance for them to try and be all they could be So that unlike him they'd never know the chains of ignorance or taste the bitter bread of poverty He wanted them to have all the things he'd never had And if all that took was blood and sweat He'd give both and be glad He lived to watch his children grow and match their father's dreams All it took was love and pride and two strong arms In the still heat of the afternoon Kritos was laid to rest in the dry and dusty red soil of Australia As the Mulberry and Cypress bloomed beneath the mountain crests so far away in Macedonia The children of his heart and the children of his blood In sorrow and in silence and in pride, around him stood All his sons and daughters with their daughters and their sons, The Family of the man with two strong arms The Family of the man with two strong arms