1968

That year May lasted twelve months
You and I had just been born
And a very serious man died of disgust
On the front page of ABC
The carnations bit the magistrates
Paris was a neighborhood with an accordion
Marx forbade his children to be late
To the sweet bonfire of insurrection
Poetry went out to the streets
We recognized our faces
We knew that everything is possible
In 1968

Jean Paul Sartre and Dylan sang a duet
Lenin and Rimbaud played ring-a-ring
The clocks marked 40 degrees of fever
There was talk of sex at Renault
Two and two never added up to 4 again
He suffered from lovesickness until Degault
In the middle of Prague poppies grew
As a red challenge to the grey concrete
Poetry went out to the streets
We recognized our faces
We knew that everything is possible
In 1968

But we couldn't reinvent history
Death chewed gum in Vietnam
Tanks trampled the flowers of Prague
In beautiful Mexico they were throwing to give
While Che was digging his grave in Bolivia
Masiel sang at Eurovision
And my father arrived at work on time
With the white collar and the brown suit
If I now find that friend
I read in the depths of your eyes
That the flowers have already dried up
From 1968

The paintings went on strike in the museums
Paris was red, San Francisco was blue
A homeless man was elected mayor
And the Sorbonne was in Catmandu
Survive you moron! It's rock or die
Drink coke, sing this song
That spring will last very little
Tomorrow is Monday and it rained last night
If I now find that friend
I read in the depths of your eyes
That the flowers have already dried up
From 1968