My Vien Ilin Lyrics

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists My Vien Ilin

And when I was seventeen
I made myself a DMZ
But they continued bombing me
Hot and steadily

They divided me at seventeen
I declared myself a DMZ
But they continue bombing me
Incessantly

Dig in Vien Ilin, dig in today
The Americans are on their way
American bombs away
Dig in today

We make our days as they make us
As I must, says Odysseus
Make myself my own Telemachus
"Bous Stephanos, Stephanoumenos Dedalus!"

And if it hasn't been a bust
Then land-ho, Ulysseus
And all of us like Dedalus
Dead, dead all of us

Between the dense red clay and the deep blue sea
What horrors rage internally
And what reactions, chemically
Through synapses so awfully

Conducting electricity
And converting less efficiently
What potential energy
For this life of endless tunneling?

So deep beneath the DMZ
Lightless of necessity
Their bombs are heard incessantly
Our days, they make us, clearly