A Slow Waltz For Chile

Last night I heard of the death of a stranger to me

'Though I've known many more of her kind

Scattered in bed-sits and in 'hard-to-let' flats

And anywhere else they could find

Half a world distant for half a life here

With the certainty at the day's end

Still they'd have to return

While something remains to defend

There's a slow waltz for Chile

All down through the years

Of Pinochet, murder and dread

With no quick step solution

Just the will to resist

'Til the last decent Chilean is dead

All the stencils and the arguments, the smoking and the

Damp

These were things that I came to resent

Until a, "Who's going to miss me if I miss now and

Again?"

Soon came to mean that I never went

But, drinking, I'd be there, with my fist in the air

'To consolidate we must advance'

Now a cold wind from Chile has frozen this fool

In suffering there just is no romance

Last night I heard of the death of a stranger to me

And I didn't ask how she died

Because the way that she lived was all that we need to

Know

While we've still got time to decide