YA UN RAT

When I was studying French in high school, we learned a song titled, "Y'a un rat dans l'grenier," and though I've mistranslated "grenier," the title and the tune have stuck with me all my life.  Here's what I've finally made of it:

Rats in the granary

rifles and flashlight

blast those eyeballs

shiny and bright

good for a joke

good for a laugh

got enough ammo

time will pass

bored to death

Saturday night

rats in the granary.

Train at the crossing

boys on foot

boxcar’s open

let’s have a look

grab the ladder

grab the dream

train starts movin’

whistles scream

bored to death

Saturday night

train at the crossing

rats in the granary.

Youth ain’t long

sure is hard

spend your life

in your own backyard

go to school

go to church

alarm clock rings

out you lurch

dead end job

in your dead end town

with your dead end girl

and your dead end crowd

rats in the granary.

Drink drank drunk

Marine Corps, man

fall asleep loaded

rise in the sand

trade your toys

for a bigger gun

trade the rats

for rag-head fun

you’re a killer now

sights on jihad

all grow’d up

and you’re bad

rats in the granary.

Rotate home

nothing in mind

take a quick look

here’s what you find

people in the streets

talking to god

sitting on the curb

life on the nod

stand in line

shuffle to the shelter

Saturday night

helter skelter

rats in the granary

rats in the granary

rats in the granary...

Seattle

11.02.2016

 Raffi has a kinder, gentler take on it:  Ya Un Rat