Two Strong Arms Eric Bogle

Two Strong Arms
-Eric Bogle

In the still heat of the afternoon
Kritos was laid to rest
In the dry and dusty red soil of Australia
As the Mulberry and Cypress bloomed
Beneath the mountain crests
So far away in Macedonia

The children of his heart
And the children of his blood
In sorrow and in silence
And in pride, around him stood
All his sons and daughters with
Their daughters and their sons
The Family of the man with two strong arms

Born a peasant's son on a mountain farm
Where a thin and grudging earth
Made hunger a gray ghost at every meal
Where life was just a grinding stone
Of poverty and death
That crushed young and old alike
Beneath the wheel