Paris (The Carousel)

click to hear blues version
for Louise Cowan

The carousel goes round and round.
It goes up and down.
It goes up and down.

Children ride on white ponies.
They go up and down.
Airplanes could carry them higher
but they stay close to the ground.

Refugees gather on the border.
The lines are long.
The children freeze in the camps.
They say their prayers by kerosene lamps.

The carousel goes round and round.
It goes up and down.
It goes up and down.

Out in the desert, rockets flare.
They go up and they go down.
The go round and round.
They go up and down.

Along the canal, blue lights flash.
The carousel goes round and round
where children once rode white ponies
and stayed close to the ground.

The carousel goes round and round
where children once rode white ponies
and stayed close to the ground.