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Trembling Sky

from Dust of Uruzgan by Fred Smith

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about

When the Taliban took power in 1996, many Afghans held hopes that, for all the severity of their approach, they might at least bring some order to the country wracked by conflict and predatory warlordism.
But the Taliban period was an awful time in Afghanistan. Their zealous anti-modern approach combined with three years of severe drought caused what was left of the economy to disintegrate. The regime was harsh, decreeing that women were to wear full chadris or burkhas outside the home and banning all nonreligious social activities including films, music, kite flying and poetry (Afghans love poetry and will take great risks to travel to a poetry meet). These rules were enforced by summary beatings, sham trials and public executions.
A result of this was a continuing flow of refugees out of Afghanistan. By mid-2001, an estimated 3.6 million Afghans were living outside their national borders — mainly in Pakistan and Iran.

lyrics

For my homeland I am pining
I will keep this letter rhyming, they can decode, what is written in prose
So they tried me in my absence, when I heard about my sentence, I had to smile, here in exile
For you know from your excursions if the truth has many versions then what is a lie, to the trembling sky? peer

As our nation looked for heroes we both fell in with the weirdoes all of our peers, artists and queers
As I recall we still were kissing, as our friends were going missing spit in the eye, of the trembling sky


If you are taken for correction, they will ask about connection. Just play the game, slander my name
And don’t ask them for a reason, or they’ll have you tried for treason
Never ask why of the trembling sky
As our countrymen all hardened,
Esmat found me in my garden
Gave me the queue, time to slip through
So I hope you understand
there was no time to touch your hand
When I had to fly from the trembling sky
Never say die to the trembling sky

credits

from Dust of Uruzgan, released August 30, 2020
Vocal by Liz Frencham

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Fred Smith Canberra, Australia

“Fred Smith is simply the best folk/country musician working in this country in 2020. Beyond writing some of the finest songs about Australians at war, he has created a repertoire that is wry, literate, witty, powerfully emotional and insightful.”(Bruce Elder, Sydney Morning Herald). ... more

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