Marlyn's Song

Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2003 11:23:54 GMT
Newsgroups: rec.music.folk
Size: 1,713 bytes

Greetings:
Marlyn Carmen Garcia -- first name pronounced the same as "Marlene" --
had been my student a few years earlier at El Puente Academy, a
non-traditional public high school in Brooklyn, NY. "Marlyn" is the
correct spelling, not "Marilyn" or "Marlene." You can find a picture of
her at:
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/memorial/people/3704.html
--- Steve
----------------
MARLYN'S SONG
Music: "Come All Ye Tramps and Hawkers" (traditional Scottish ballad)
New words by Steve Suffet © 2003
My name's Marlyn Garcia and
I come from New York town,
I was working on the hundredth floor
When the walls came tumbling down;
I died amid the steel and glass,
Amid the smoke and flame,
But your guns and bombs and bullets bring
Dishonor to my name.
In school I learned of Gandhi and
Of Cesar Chavez, too,
I learned of Martin Luther King,
And thought their words rang true;
In church I learned of Jesus Christ,
And the Sermon on the Mount,
And now I’m asking all of you:
Do their words even count?
I was only twenty when I died
That bright September day,
I’ll be twenty for eternity,
For eternity I’ll say:
Mourn not the dead,
For they are gone,
To the wind or to the grave,
But mourn instead the living whose
Lives you still can save.
I seek no vengeance for the wrong,
That was done to me,
I seek no retribution and
I only ask of thee,
To work for justice and for peace,
And some day you shall find,
An eye for an eye can only leave,
Everybody blind.
My name's Marlyn Garcia and
I come from New York town,
I was working on the hundredth floor
When the walls came tumbling down;
I died amid the steel and glass,
Amid the smoke and flame,
But your guns and bombs and bullets bring
Dishonor to my name.