Dave Lordan - Tribute To Joe Strummer

Your words were boots Joe, boots in Lewisham
When black and white and yellow riot put down the Nazi scum,
And in Trafalgar Square in ninety-one
When the fury of our rainbow class put Thatcher on the run
Your words were firing like a gun Joe, firing like a gun.

I heard your booming words echo
Through the streets of Prague-
when we shut the World Bank down
And you were roaring vengeance in Genoa
when we had to fight through gas
and bullets just to hold our ground
And when the many-headed future met in Florence
Everyone knew your name Joe
Your songs were all around.-

And when the threw me in a cell Joe
I sang straight to hell Joe
And when they stood me up in court Joe
I hummed the Brixton guns Joe

Oh Joe! when you got up to sing
It was a fist in a copper's face
It was a pitchfork in a landlord's neck
It was a bullet in a contra's gut
It was an arrow in the eye of a general
It was a kick in the balls for the rich.
It was everything good Joe
It was everything good

And when us Zombies and us Rastas
and us Punks and Workers win
You will be singing in our blood Joe
You will be dancing like speed in our veins

Dave Lordan

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/tribute-to-joe-strummer/