Gideon Oknin Poet Lyric

Against all hope

Armando Valladares didn't absorb Marxist thought
So for 22 years, another lesson he was taught.
Cuban dungeons are no picnic, surviving there is hard
He heard prisoners shot close by in the courtyard

Valladares prayed, wrote poems from that lair
He didn't ask God to get him out of there
He asked for the strength to resist, not to hate
I'm not much for preaching, but I admire strength that great.

(chorus)
Dungeons under the dance floor
Turn up the band, don't think anymore
Waltz with a legend, under a blinding light
Victims out of mind, keep them out of sight.

There was torture in that jail, politicals were hated
There was a plan to blow up inmates if Americans invaded
Western fools believed a legend clean and fair
wore Che's face on T-shirts, liked the romantic flair.

So while celebrities made their Castro calls.
Some nasty sadism was going on behind prison walls
Isolation, subhuman conditions, and mutilation
Gratuitous cruelty in this model Marxist nation.

Criminals were treated better than political inmates
The regime may not like thieves, but it hates debates.
One Swede told Armando's wife that Cuba was not heaven
But admitting this was true would give USA a weapon.

Valladares made it out, but wants us to condemn
The fate of those who won't be heard from again
We walk in the sunlit air, where free birds sing
But behind Cuban prison walls, evil is the king

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