[01:41.500]So we left Beirut Willa and I
[01:44.500]He headed East to Baghdad and the rest of it
[01:48.000]I set out North on home
[01:51.200]I walked the five or six miles to the last of the street lamps
[01:54.900]And hunkered in the kerbside dusk
[01:57.000]Holding out my thumb
[01:58.500]In no great hope at the ramshackle procession of home bound traffic
[02:03.500]Success!
[02:05.500]An ancient Mercedes 'dolmus '
[02:08.000]The ubiquitous Arab shared taxi drew up
[02:11.800]I turned out my pockets and shrugged at the driver
[02:15.500]" J'ai pas de l'argent " “
[02:17.900]" Venez! " A soft voice from the back seat “
[02:20.800]The driver lent wearily across and pushed open the back door
[02:25.200]I stooped to look inside at the two men there
[02:28.000]One besuited, bespectacled, moustached, irritated, distant, late
[02:33.800]The other, the one who had spoken,
[02:36.800]Frail, fifty five-ish, bald, sallow, in a short sleeved pale blue cotton shirt
[02:43.000]With one biro in the breast pocket
[02:45.000]A clerk maybe, slightly sunken in the seat
[02:48.800]"Venez!" He said again, and smiled “
[02:52.300]"Mais j'ai pas de l'argent" “
[02:53.600]"Oui, Oui, d'accord, Venez!"
[02:58.600]Are these the people that we should bomb
[03:05.300]Are we so sure they mean us harm
[03:12.500]Is this our pleasure, punishment or crime
[03:19.000]Is this a mountain that we really want to climb
[03:25.900]The road is hard, hard and long
[03:32.750]Put down that two by four
[03:35.400]This man would never turn you from his door
[03:39.900]Oh George! Oh George!
[03:45.600]That Texas education must have ****** you up when you were very small
[03:53.600]He beckoned with a small arthritic motion of his hand
[03:57.300]Fingers together like a child waving goodbye
[04:01.600]The driver put my old Hofner guitar in the boot with my rucksack
[04:05.100]And off we went
[04:07.650]" Vous etes Francais, monsieur? " “
[04:09.300]" Non, Anglais "
[04:10.400]" Ah! Anglais "
[04:13.000]" Est-ce que vous parlais Anglais, Monsieur? " “
[04:14.950]"Non, je regrette" “
[04:17.200]And so on
[04:18.300]In small talk between strangers, his French alien but correct
[04:23.000]Mine halting but eager to please
[04:25.300]A lift, after all, is a lift
[04:28.750]Late moustache left us brusquely
[04:30.800]And some miles later the dolmus slowed at a crossroads lit by a single lightbulb
[04:35.150]Swung through a U-turn and stopped in a cloud of dust
[04:39.000]I opened the door and got out
[04:41.100]But my benefactor made no move to follow
[04:47.400]The driver dumped my guitar and rucksack at my feet
[04:49.800]And waving away my thanks returned to the boot
[04:52.300]Only to reappear with a pair of alloy crutches
[04:55.300]Which he leaned against the rear wing of the Mercedes.
[04:59.050]He reached into the car and lifted my companion out
[05:02.000]Only one leg, the second trouser leg neatly pinned beneath a vacant hip
[05:06.900]" Monsieur, si vous voulez, ca sera un honneur pour nous “
[05:09.700]Si vous venez avec moi a la maison pour manger avec ma femme "
[05:15.700]When I was 17 my mother, bless her heart, fulfilled my summer dream
[05:25.000]She handed me the keys to the car
[05:29.400]We motored down to Paris, fuelled with Dexedrine and booze
[05:35.350]Got bust in Antibes by the cops
[05:38.600]And fleeced in Naples by the wops
[05:43.000]But everyone was kind to us, we were the English dudes
[05:49.100]Our dads had helped them win the war
[05:52.470]When we all knew what we were fighting for
[05:56.800]But now an Englishman abroad is just a US stooge
[06:02.750]The bulldog is a poodle snapping round the scoundrel's last refuge
[06:10.500]"Ma femme", thank God! Monopod but not queer “
[06:16.690]The taxi drove off leaving us in the dim light of the swinging bulb
[06:20.650]No building in sight
[06:22.200]What the hell
[06:23.900]"Merci monsieur" “
[06:25.250]"Bon, Venez!"
[06:25.950]His faced creased in pleasure, he set off in front of me
[06:30.310]Swinging his leg between the crutches with agonising care
[06:33.700]Up the dusty side road into the darkness
[06:37.900]After half an hour we'd gone maybe half a mile
[06:40.700]When on the right I made out the low profile of a building
[06:44.500]He called out in Arabic to announce our arrival
[06:47.550]And after some scuffling inside a lamp was lit
[06:50.700]And the changing angle of light in the wide crack under the door
[06:53.850]Signalled the approach of someone within
[07:01.300]The door creaked open and there, holding a biblical looking oil lamp
[07:05.200]Stood a squat, moustached woman, stooped smiling up at us
[07:12.150]She stood aside to let us in and as she turned
[07:14.850]I saw the reason for her stoop
[07:16.120]She carried on her back a shocking hump
[07:19.550]I nodded and smiled back at her in greeting, fighting for control
[07:26.150]The gentleness between the one-legged man and his monstrous wife
[07:29.395]America, America, please hear us when we call
[07:29.900]Almost too much for me
[07:31.900]Is gentleness too much for us
[07:35.250]Should gentleness be filed along with empathy
[07:42.100]We feel for someone else's child
[07:46.030]Every time a smart bomb does its sums and gets it wrong
[07:52.725]Someone else's child dies and equities in defence rise
[08:05.875]You got hip-hop, be-bop, hustle and bustle
[08:09.150]You got Atticus Finch
[08:11.250]You got Jane Russell
[08:12.900]You got freedom of speech
[08:14.900]You got great beaches, wildernesses and malls
[08:19.850]Don't let the might, the Christian right, **** it all up
[08:24.950]For you and the rest of the world
[08:28.100]They talked excitedly
[08:29.850]She went to take his crutches in routine of care
[08:32.800]He chiding, gestured
[08:35.150]We have a guest
[08:36.700]She embarrassed by her faux pas
[08:38.650]Took my things and laid them gently in the corner
[08:42.450]"Du the?"
[08:44.500]We sat on meagre cushions in one corner of the single room
[08:47.500]The floor was earth packed hard and by one wall a raised platform
[08:51.700]Some six feet by four covered by a simple sheet, the bed
[08:57.000]The hunchback busied herself with small copper pots over an open hearth
[09:01.100]And brought us tea, hot and sweet
[09:03.865]And so to dinner
[09:05.400]Flat, unleavened bread, + thin
[09:08.050]Cooked in an iron skillet in hearth
[09:10.430]Then folded and dipped into the soft insides of female sea urchins
[09:19.600]She would hear of nothing else, I was their guest
[09:19.725]My hostess did not eat, I ate her dinner
[09:22.900]And then she retired behind a curtain
[09:25.675]And left the men to sit drinking thimbleful of Arak
[09:29.500]Carefully poured from a small bottle with a faded label
[09:32.900]Soon she reappeared, radiant
[09:35.695]Carrying in her arms their pride and joy, their child.
[09:41.880]I'd never seen a squint like that
[09:44.965]So severe that as one eye looked out the other disappeared behind its nose
[09:49.880]Not in my name, Tony, you great war leader you
[09:56.200]Terror is still terror, whosoever gets to frame the rules
[10:03.000]History's not written by the vanquished or the damned
[10:10.435]Now we are Genghis Khan, Lucrezia Borghia, Son of Sam
[10:16.400]In 1961 they took this child into their home
[10:23.300]I wonder what became of them
[10:26.550]In the cauldron that was Lebanon
[10:31.020]If I could find them now, could I make amends?
[10:37.800]How does the story end?
[10:45.000]And so to bed, me that is, not them
[10:51.000]Of course they slept on the floor behind a curtain
[10:55.000]Whilst I lay awake all night on their earthen bed
[10:58.850]Then came the dawn and then their quiet stirrings
[11:02.350]I turned North, my guitar over my shoulder
[11:02.600]Careful not to wake the guest
[11:05.200]I yawned in great pretence
[11:05.800]And the first hot gust of wind
[11:07.400]And took the proffered bowl of water heated up and washed
[11:08.100]Quickly dried the salt tears from my young cheeks.
[11:10.750]And sipped my coffee in its tiny cup
[11:13.330]And then with much "merci-ing" and bowing and shaking of hands
[11:17.050]We left the woman to her chores
[11:19.600]And we men made our way back to the crossroads
[11:23.300]The painful slowness of our progress accentuated by the brilliant morning light
[11:32.197]The dolmus duly reappeared
[11:35.000]My host gave me one crutch and leaning on the other
[11:37.550]Shook my hand and smiled
[11:40.000]"Merci, monsieur," I said “
[11:42.200]" De rien " “
[11:43.850]" Et merci a votre femme, elle est tres gentille " “
[11:49.600]Giving up his other crutch
[11:50.850]He allowed himself to be folded into the back seat again
[11:54.500]"Bon voyage, monsieur," he said “
[11:56.945]And half bowed as the taxi headed south towards the city