Passport Blues

When I was a virgin

I lived in a mansion

Latin I studied and

Sanskrit and scansion

Bright as the china on

Grandmother's shelf

Now I'm a widow

Ten times a widow

Never been married and

Live by myself.

Oh, honey, how long must I wait for a passport,

wait for a visa, wait for a home?

From Bremen to Budapest

Landeck to Liverpool

Scotland to Spain

I left them by steamer

By truck and by train

Always a fugitive

Always suspected

Never convicted

Nowhere to go

I went to the consul

The consul said No.

Oh, honey, how long must I wait for a passport,

wait for a visa, wait for a home?

Baggage and bedlinen

Virtue and hope

In Bremen I lost them

Future and family

Toothbrush and soap

Now Bremen is only

Weeds among stones

With Grandmother's china

Lie Grandfather's bones.

Oh, honey, how long must I wait for a passport,

wait for a visa, wait for a home?

My mother was blinded

She sent me a cable

Come home, little daughter

Come home to our cellar

Come starve at our table

But who will sign papers

And who pay my fare

So far, so very far?

A home is wherever

You were and a hell

Is wherever you are.

Oh, honey, how long must I wait for a passport,

honey, please find me a home.

MALCOLM CowLey

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