Two Strong Arms Lyrics

Two Strong Arms

-Eric Bogle

In the still heat of the afternoon

Kritos was laid to rest

in the dry and dusty red soil of Australia

As the Mulberry and Cypress bloomed

beneath the mountain crests

so far away in Macedonia

The children of his heart

and the children of his blood

In sorrow and in silence

and in pride, around him stood

All his sons and daughters with

their daughters and their sons,

The Family of the man with two strong arms

Born a peasant's son on a mountain farm

where a thin and grudging earth

made hunger a gray ghost at every meal

where life was just a grinding stone

of poverty and death

that crushed young and old alike

beneath the wheel

So before the wheel could turn

with his family and his wife

Kristos came down from the mountains

searching for a better life

Bringing only hopes and dreams with him

to the distant southern land

And a brave and willing heart,

and two strong arms

In a West Australian country town

Kristos found a job

for men willing to work hard

and bend their backs

Cutting the lofty gum trees down,

clearing brush and scrub

Where speaking English mattered lessBogle Eric - Two Strong Arms - http://motolyrics.com/bogle-eric/two-strong-arms-lyrics.html

than a good sharp axe

Driven by his dreams

as the hard years came and went

Kristos bent his back to every

daylight hour that got sent

How many golden wheat fields grow?

how many western farms?

The rich harvest of the man

with two strong arms

He worked to keep his family fed and clothed

to give his kids the chance

for them to try and be all they could be

So that unlike him they'd never know

the chains of ignorance

or taste the bitter bread of poverty

He wanted them to have

all the things he'd never had

And if all that took was blood and sweat

He'd give both and be glad

He lived to watch his children grow

and match their father's dreams

All it took was love and pride

and two strong arms

In the still heat of the afternoon

Kritos was laid to rest

in the dry and dusty red soil of Australia

As the Mulberry and Cypress bloomed

beneath the mountain crests

so far away in Macedonia

The children of his heart

and the children of his blood

In sorrow and in silence

and in pride, around him stood

All his sons and daughters with

their daughters and their sons,

The Family of the man with two strong arms
The Family of the man with two strong arms