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Roll with the Punches

from Ground Zero by Patrick Burgess

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lyrics

Roll with the Punches

There’s a lantern’s shadow in a local bar
Down an unlit Mexican lane
I’m drinking Mezcal shots with an old sea dog
Its August, in the year of the great earthquake
He telling tales of a thousand ports
And says, I aint been home since the war
Through his bloodshot eyes he throws me words of advice
As I’m crawling out through the door

You’ve got to roll with the punches boy
Bend like a willow tree
If you’re proud and tall like a mast in a storm
You’re gonna break when a strong wind comes

I’m in a Bangkok trap with a kilo of black
When a knock comes on the door
I wake in a filthy cell, with a urinal smell
My blood lies in pools on the floor
The script of the dream didn’t have this scene
Someone’s cheating, I shouldn’t be here
And as the months drip by I fight losing my mind
Whispering his words through my tears

The highest of highs and the lowest of lows
Seem to be the rules of the road
Through the wandering years I fought phantoms of fear
Lived in heat and shivered with cold
Through a sweat-soaked African malarial hell
Into the arms of a princess, beguiled
I felt the screaming slice of the cold turkey knives
Watched a friend sell me out with a smile

Now my traveling days have begun to fade
I’m tied down, caught up, and it all tastes the same
But the miles and the smiles, the jewels of the road
I carry within me wherever I go
When its dragging me down and I fear I might drown
And there’s nothing legal that can ease my pain
I cast my mind back to old one-eyed Jack
And the gift that he gave me down that Mexican lane

credits

from Ground Zero, released July 23, 2016

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Patrick Burgess Australia

Human rights activist singer-songwriter Patrick Burgess draws from the stories of ordinary people who have inspired him during his travels to many of the world’s conflict areas. He has worked in Rwanda, East Timor, Myanmar, the Congo, Cambodia and dozens of other countries, always carrying a guitar...

Patrick Burgess’ new single, ‘Stolen Children’ out now on Bandcamp! ... more

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