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Boat People

from 1942 by No-No Boy

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lyrics

Forty years ago, the doctor left on a boat
Never seen the snow or felt it in his hand
Sail until you see dry land

I can’t get off the news, I can’t get off the floor
The “good folks” go inside when we need them most
What do prayers do behind locked doors?

Tuan went back to rebuild, only to watch Saigon fall
He climbs up Mont Royal, makes a life in Montreal
Donated winter coats and Barbie dolls

I wrap myself in books. They’re talking bout this ban
I linger on bell hooks. She helps me to understand
Some of this ain’t new, no, ma’am.

Fourteen hours by car, cargo trucks and cabs
Just to shake the cops, Mom had to stay back
A Chinese safe house and covered tracks

Eighteen meters long, two hundred bodies full
A simple compass and a map from a kid’s geography book
Forget Ferdinand or Captain fuckin’ Cook

Bodies bobbing in the rough South China Sea
Ran across a Thai pirate ship scavenging
Ripped the doctor from his kids, bleeding

Hours under gun, then tossed into the water
He swam back to his son, held on to his daughter
Drifting through the night…

As the daylight broke, a mountain in the dawn
Off the Malaysian coast, sweet Pulau Bidong
Never cried so hard or so long

I can’t get off the news. I can’t get off my phone
My mother came here, too, forty years ago
If you see somebody’s cold, give ‘em a coat

credits

from 1942, released September 21, 2018

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No-No Boy Portland, Oregon

Nashville-born, Oregon musician & scholar. New album "Empire Electric out on Smithsonian Folkways fall 2023.

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