Song for Dennis Brown

On the day that Dennis Brown's lung collapsed

Spring rain was misting down on Kingston

And down at the harbor

Local cops were intercepting an inbound shipment

And for a while there it was chaos

As they handcuffed and then roughed up some sailors

On the day my lung collapses

It's not going to be much different

On the day that Dennis Brown's habits caught up with him

School children sang in choirs

And out behind the Chinese restaurants

Guys were jumping into dumpsters

And the stench was overbearing

But they were past the point of caring

On the day my habits catch up with me

I'll be down among the jumpers

And when the birds come home in spring

We will fill them full of buckshot

And jets of contaminated blood

Will cloud the rivers and the lakes

It took all the coke in town

To bring down Dennis Brown

On the day my lung collapses

We'll see just how much it takes