Lara Herscovitch: listen

• MP3 short clip, hi-fi play (broadband)
• MP3 short clip, lo-fi play (modem)

Trailers ready, gas tanks filled
Harriet’s homecoming, the town is standing still
As day turned to evening the warmth disappeared
If home is where the heart is that’s clearly not here

Red carpet wasn’t rolling, barricades instead
Many happy town officials called the matter dead
Hiding in the shelter of zoning legal speak
You plan the reception for Simon Legree

(chorus)
They say they love “the little lady who started the war”*
but Harriet’s not welcome in Litchfield anymore
They never noticed their shepherd strayed
Their shadows all stretch into yesterday

We climb the apple tree to find only pears
Call for your conscience, nobody’s there
Crumble the mirror when it shows you fear
The underground railroad never stopped here

Piousness on Sunday doesn’t save your soul
Look inside the tax code, a great big heart-shaped hole
Leave them to live hungry-ever-after in the end
Centuries later you still don’t understand

(chorus)

The sentry sleeps as you sweep through
We might save us from ourselves, how we gonna save us from you

(chorus)
They say they love “the little lady who started the war”*
But Harriet can’t come home to Litchfield anymore…

They may love the little lady who started the war
But not the people who she stood for
All of your excuses make it clear
You believe in equality, just not here…

*Abraham Lincoln, referring to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s writing of Uncle Tom’s Cabin