How Can I Call This Home?

Today we honor those who honored us, fighting the war some

Fifty years ago. Those who gave life and limb for Georgia

And suffered unimaginable degradation, but never defeat. The

Men of Georgia and the women of Georgia have never been defeated

I go to bed at night

Hoping when I wake

This will all be gone

Like it was just a dream

And I'll be home again

Back again in Brooklyn

Back with people who look like I do

And talk like I do

And think like I do

But then

The sun rises in Atlanta

Again

These people make me tense

I live in fear they'll start a conversation

These people make no sense

They talk and I just stare and shut my mouth

It's like a foreign land

I didn't understand

That being Southern's not just being in the South

When I look out on all this

How can I call this home?

These men belong in zoos

It's like they've never joined civilization

The Jews are not like Jews

I thought the Jews were Jews

But I was wrong

I thought I would be fine

But four years down the line

With every word, it's very clear

I don't belong

I don't cuss, I don't drawl

So how can I call this home?

Home calls

And I'm free of the Southern breeze

Free of magnolia trees

And endless sunshine

Evermore lives the dream of Atlanta

But not mine

Not mine

We stand together

A Yankee with a college education

In the great state of Georgia

And by his own design

Is trapped inside the land that time forgot

Strong and proud

I'm trapped inside this life

And trapped beside a wife

Who would prefer that I said "Howdy"

Not "Shalom"

Well, I'm sorry, Lucille

The sun rises in the morning

But I feel what I feel

And the world is a closer

And this place is surreal

And the world is a closer