album cover
Beau
The Illegal
1
Folk
The Illegal was released on January 22, 2016 by Cherry Red Records as a part of the album When Butterflies Scream
album cover
AlbumWhen Butterflies Scream
Release DateJanuary 22, 2016
LabelCherry Red Records
LanguageEnglish
Melodicness
Acousticness
Valence
Danceability
Energy
BPM120

OVERVIEW

LYRICS

Credits

Lyrics

The day it began, no one escaped
Lives systematically being reshaped
A homeland of riches and so many dreams
Like many before, came apart at the seams
Through cant and corruption and everyday lies
Something was surely about to arise
Nothing was organised, there was no plan
The day became dark, and the killing began
Neighbours and friends that he thought that he knew
Stood in a drunken, disorderly queue
His wife and his daughters were raped and then killed
And blood ran in rivers wherever it spilled
They stripped him, then started all over again
Scarified him with a rusty old chain
And finally left him for dying or dead
The madness ran deep; the insanity spread
He took to the woods while he still had a chance
Weakened and traumatised, still in a trance
Riding by night on the roof of a train
He finally made it to sparser terrain
Where he met fellow-travellers who told of escapes
From the mass executions and the genocide rapes
They drifted through frontiers like so many ghosts
Always avoiding the frontier posts
The refugees searched in the local bazaars
For clothing to hopefully cover their scars
Experience had taught them, and quickly they'd learned
"Don't be discovered, don't be returned..."
And that's where they came across owners of boats
Who'd organise things for a few thousand notes
Or even the promise of a payment in kind
Highly conveniently left undefined
From an uncharted cove and with no guarantees
The vessel set out to a freshening breeze
A couple of hundred were crowding her decks
Whatever they were, they were risking their necks
Death and destruction, or freedom from fear?
It's even worth paying a black marketeer
When sheer desperation is all you can find
In the dark and the deep of a crucified mind
Day upon day spent appeasing their Lord
As dead and as dying were thrown overboard
Others boats left at the same time as they
Several had foundered the very first day
But somehow the vessel still kept them afloat
Then, just as they'd almost lost faith on the boat
A military plane passing high to the west
Sent out a message to detain and arrest
A rusty old freighter, the "Panama Pride"
One by one, hauled them up over the side
Diverting for twenty-four hours at most
She landed them up on a faraway coast
Where men in dark glasses were looking askance
At the desolate outcasts who'd taken their chance
They herded them out into some kind of camp
And counted them in by a kerosene lamp
Then came the discussions of what to do next
High-level diplomacy; email and text
Flew over continents. Arguments raged
With more politicians becoming engaged
"We're not in the business of profit and loss!"
"Sort out the doctors and leave out the dross!"
"It's wrong to infer that we're lacking in care
But we're over here and they're over there!"
But it was those rumours from outside the wire
That ran through the huts in the camp like a fire
Stories about an elaborate charade
And how many migrants were being betrayed
Tortured by guilt for his daughters and wife
The Illegal got lucky this once in his life
The instinct he'd so much depended upon
Told him again; it was time to move on
An hour before dawn, when the dark was intense
He scrambled beneath the perimeter fence
It seemed by the earliest glimmer of light
The Illegal was literally fading from sight
By the time that the sun brought its heat to the day
Like a Cheshire Cat smile, he'd melted away
In the camp, it was hours before he was missed
Whoever he was, he'd ceased to exist
Written by: Beau

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