Poland

Lyrics

Two Polish partisans walked at dawn
With iron on their wrists,
The morning mist lay on the road
Like smoke across the fields.

They led them up beneath the gallows,
Past the watching rows;
They tied the blindfolds over their eyes
And raised the rifles close.

“Remember us,” one whispered low,
“Remember what we chose.”
The shots rang out against the sky;
The larks fell still among the groves.

Then from the trees came boots and cries,
The forest broke its hush—
The partisans rushed the firing line
With clubs and bare-knuckled fists.

They struck through smoke and scattered ranks,
They drove the guards away;
And carried home the fallen two
Before the break of day.

So sing their names when dusk comes down
And stars burn through the pines:
Two lives cut short beneath the rope,
Two sparks no dark could blind.