Faris Odeh (The Green Fields of Palestine)

I saw this pic one day of young Faris Odeh
At 14 already so brave
Your pops just wanted you to obey
But you knew you had to go your own way

Used to go everyday to the front lines
Only holding stones Dave vs. Goliath
You tried to hide from the cameras
'Cause if your dad found out, he'd be mad bruh

But from a safe place far away
A photog saw young Faris Odeh
14 years old, 15 yards away
From the turret of a Merkava tank

Show 'em you ain't afraid and never will be
The picture still give me chills B
IDF shot you in the neck the next week
You was just about to turn 15

Did they beat the drum slowly?
Play the oud in a low key?
The sound of a death march as they lowered you down
Did the firqa play for ya
The last post and chorus
Not yet a man but he still died as a soldier

In so many hearts you're still living on
But sometimes I can't help but think about your mom
You'd be grown today, maybe your own family
But to her is you still a kid at 14?

Your picture is famous like a visual psalm
I even got it tatted on my arm
But when your mom the picture does she feel the same?
Or after all these years, is it still just pain

I wonder which pics remain in her picture frames
And did they maintain through the latest campaign?
Did the memories make it through the hellish flames
When the bombs dropped for eleven days?

We're still seeing pictures of houses burn
So now yours is worth a hundred thousand words
And even the stars in the sky yo
Are just pics from a long, long time ago

Did they beat the drum slowly?
Play the oud in a low key?
The sound of a death march as they lowered you down
Did the firqa play for ya
The last post and chorus
Not yet a man but he still died as a soldier

I hope one day soon we see the sun shine
On those green fields of Palestine
But can you ever really change callous minds?
And how many more children have to die?

How they sleep at night, these grown folks?
When they kill a kid is it weird seeing their photo?
I don't know, but I do know that it happened again
And again, and again, and again, and again

Will it ever end in the settlement?
Is every kid destined to be a veteran?
We need better men than we got now
An old lesson, but we forgot how

It's like on the ground I found their romaine
They let us down, ask Mrs. Odeh
She said she was afraid it would all be for none
And what's actually changed?
She's just lost her son

Did they beat the drum slowly?
Play the oud in a low key?
The sound of a death march as they lowered you down
Did the firqa play for ya
The last post and chorus
Not yet a man but he still died as a soldier

Did they beat the drum slowly?
Play the oud in a low key?
The sound of a death march as they lowered you down
Did the firqa play for ya
The last post and chorus
Not yet a man but he still died as a soldier