"Come on back to the war"

[Minstrel Boy]

Leonard Cohen


There is a war between the rich and poor,
a war between the man and the woman.
There is a war between the ones who say there is a war
and the ones who say there isn't.

You cannot stand what I've become,
you much prefer the gentleman I was before.
I was so easy to defeat, I was so easy to control,
I didn't even know there was a war.

Why don't you come on back to the war - that's right, get in it.
Why don't you come on back to the war - it's just beginning.
Why don't you come on back to the war - don't be a tourist.
Why don't you come on back to the war - before it hurts us.
Why don't you come on back to the war - let's all get nervous.
Why don't you come on back to the war - pick up your tiny burden.
Why don't you come on back to the war - let's all get even.
Why don't you come on back to the war - can't you hear me speaking?

...

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
has crossed the threshold
and it has overturned
the order of the soul
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT REPENT
I wonder what they meant?

...

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in.

We asked for signs
The signs were sent
The birth betrayed
The marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood
Of every government
Signs for all to see.

I can't run no more
With that lawless crowd
While the killers in high places
Say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned, they've summoned up a thundercloud
And they're going to hear from me.

...

I'm as stubborn as the junk that time cannot decay.
I'm junk, but I'm still holding up
This little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the USA.