David Rovics - The Key lyrics

Let me tell you about a lady Known as grandma to me She died back in 1982 She liked to tell stories Of how things used to be Just like other old ladies do She talked about her neighbors m**ms and Christians Arabs, Britons and Jews They'd come over for dinner In her house in Jaffa And they'd talk about business and news We got along fine A long time ago Before everything started to change I never imagined Back in those days I'd end up here on this firing range There on a string around her neck Danging in front of her heart The key to her home The key to her people The key to her world blown apart I recall the days well 1948 The year of the Catastrophe With machine guns and torches They drove us away To the land of the refugee We all thought it would pa** But the decades dragged on And my heart turned to flame To those who live in my home Where is your conscience Do you feel the remorse and the shame There on a string around her neck Danging in front of her heart The key to her home The key to her people The key to her world blown apart Now after two generations I and her grandchildren say The key is theirs and mine And all over the world We cry for Al-Awda Home in Palestine Maybe we will prevail But come what may As empires fall and rise Nothing will change The memory Of the tears in my grandmother's eyes There on a string around her neck Danging in front of her heart The key to her home The key to her people The key to her world blown apart