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  1. Forfend

From the recording Desolate Heaven

I kept checking in on the Charlottesville demonstrations and resistance throughout the day on August 12, 2017. I live only an hour or so away. Used to live there. Had friends resisting. One who invited me to join him singing folk songs to Nazis, as he put it. But I had commitments, so I stayed away. Still, I couldn't stop checking in. Swastikas, really? Blood and soil? It seemed impossible. And this song started piecing itself together as the day kept getting worse. By midnight, I had recorded a draft on video. 
It's not only about Charlottesville. Other desperate events and ongoing tragedies appear, too. I guess there's lots of work to do.
This is a studio recording. Thanks to Beth and Annie Nealon for family harmony on the choruses.
And here are links to the rough draft on video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWVIw31jt94
https://www.facebook.com/dave.nealon/videos/10213395029806176/

Lyrics

Stiff-armed marchers shouting "blood and soil"
Above our anguished prayers of shame and loss
Left our hometown steets soiled and bloody
Bright red banner, crooked cross
 
Heaven help us
Saints preserve us
God forbid it
Angels forfend
Lord forgive us
Christ have mercy
We pray protection
Amen
 
We cried O Lord how many Bloody Sundays
Like slave ships sunk and drowned in stormy seas?
Or photographs of children fleeing napalm
On the pages of Life magazine?
 
Never no more
Never no more
Never no more
Never no more
 
Stretching out for mile upon mile
A crowded makeshift city on the sand
Bigger than the town that I grew up in
Canvas and sheet metal unplanned
 
How long can a forest grip the rocky cliff?
How long can a generation thrive ungrounded and bereft?
 
Heaven help us
Saints preserve us
God forbid it
Angels forfend
Lord forgive us
Christ have mercy
We pray protection
Amen