You, you were written on the lips of every language
you knew the sentinels lacked courage
and the torture rooms still talked
baits and hooks and every flower tried to win you
but the nightmare couldn’t claim you
and the daytime was too shocked

I fell in love
with your moral outrage
quixotic and so poor
I don’t remember much
but my heart remembers more

they gave you diamonds,
then razors,
then threats at every border
you never took any of them
and then you closed the door


baby there’s a place for us I’m sure
baby there’s a place for us I’m sure


you said that love songs had no place in revolution
memorize the constitution not the poet’s arsenal
you packed our lunches with the wretched and the damned
you swallowed my sea shells
and I swallowed your George Sand

I said, ‘What do you want me to do with what I’ve written?
I wrote a song in the first person and I think that it’s true’
she said, ‘How can you live for yourself just one person?’
I said, ‘Baby, that’s not the whole story.
I’m also living for you.’


baby there’s a place for us I’m sure
baby there’s a place for us I’m sure


something happened when you were younger
hardest rain I ever seen
humans stained the arc of Joseph
so you put your back against the machine
back against the machine

you, you were written on the lips of every language
they called you in the wreckage of a night washed onto shore
they said take this package past the border to the harbor
find the sailor with the briefcase
if there’s danger look for more
that’s the last time that I saw my fierce lady
they whisper she was like Lenin in his citadel of sparks
I just remember her imprint on blankets
all ideas seem to fade
but those feelings left their mark


baby there’s a place for us I’m sure
baby there’s a place for us I’m sure