Robert Bly - The Russian lyrics

“The Russians had few doctors on the front line. My father's job was this: after the battle Was over, he'd walk among the men hit, Sit down and ask: 'Would you like to die on your Own in a few hours, or should I finish it?' Most said, 'Don't leave me.' The two would have A cigarette. He'd take out his small notebook— We had no dogtags, you know— and write the man's Name down, his wife's, his children, his address, and what He wanted to say. When the the cigarette was done, The soldier would turn his head to the side. My father Finished off four hundred men that way during the war. He never went crazy. They were his people. He came to Toronto. My father in the summers Would stand on the lawn with a hose, watering The gra** that way. It took a long time. He'd talk To the moon, to the wind. 'I can hear you growing'— He'd say to the gra**. 'We come and go. We're no different from each other. We are all Part of something. We have a home.' When I was thirteen, I said, 'Dad, do you know they've invented sprinklers Now?' He went on watering the gra**. 'This is my life. Just shut up if you don't understand it.'”