In the Casa Grande garden, we sat at evening time
Politely making small talk while the waiters poured more wine.
And it seemed like some old movie that I saw so long ago
Until I looked out through the chain link fence at the city down below.
CHORUS:
There’s a full moon over Managua, and the wind is in the trees,
The stars are shining clear tonight, there’s music on the breeze
The palm tree silhouettes against the sky look like a painted scene
As I wonder to myself who really is the enemy.
And up in the Northern mountains, not so many miles away,
Silent eyes watch through the night waiting for the break of day
And the smell of burning wheat fields still lingers in the sky,
With the silence sometimes broken by the crack of rifle fire.
I saw a woman rocking on her porch, her eyes as hard as steel,
A machine gun cradled in her arms where a baby might have been.
She said that though she hadn’t much, at least it was her own,
And she’d rather die than go back to the way it was before.
I never will forget the night, at the ruins of the Grand Hotel,
The cloggers danced their hearts out, and we gave the music hell.
And the bats flew like mosquitoes as the moon rose overhead,
And we knew that we would never all have such a night again.
Love of the Land – Green Linnet, GLCD 1097
Words and Music by Robbie O’Connell © 1987
Slievenamon Music (BMI)
