Lead Me Up Poem by Lee Crowell

Lead me up those steel grey stairs
and fit me with your heavy noose.
You can watch me dropp down through the floor.
When I'm dead you can cut me loose.

Remember my Quran for Bandar
as you dance so joyfully.
Then put me in the ground with my two sons
at the Ouja cemetery.

There's no patience in Baghdad this morning.
Add one more to the toll in Iraq.
I am an offering for you holiday cheer,
or a day to be mourning in black.

Bullets flew past my face in Dujail.
We hung a hundred men for that.
A message for my Iraqi brothers
to let them know exactly where I was at.

We burned their farms and houses,
sent their children to a desert prison.
Yes we burned that village right off the map
shouting 'satan has arisen'.

And those other events you mention,
countless faces wiped away.
No time to sort through the multitudes.
We just buried them and went on our way.

No patience in Baghdad this morning.
Add one more to the toll in Iraq.
The next man in line is cleaning his gun
and learning to watch his back.

So lead me up those steel grey stairs
and may Allah clearly see
that despite your black hood and heavy noose
you're a better man than me.

Yes may Allah show us mercy,
the mercy I never gave.
And if you find my heart too dark and cold
then just leave me in my grave.