Song of the Season: “The Paper Heart” (Si Kahn)

This song appeared in the Fall 2009 print edition of Paper Heart (Issue #1).

There's a long, long line of people
Trying to keep from crying
There's always someone dying
But today's just not the same
There's a man shot dead in Utah
With a paper heart pinned on him
Framed up without pardon
I guess you know his name.

CHORUS:
Well, you say you saw him out last night
But I hear him every day
In the voices of the people
In the songs they sing and play
They framed him up and they shot him down
This whole wide world's his burying ground
But the songs of the working people
Are his marking stone.

If heaven is One Big Union
I know that's where I'll find him
Playing cards with Big Bill Haywood
Telling jokes with Mother Jones
Casey Jones and long-haired preachers
Mr. Block and Scissor Bill
"Sent to hell a-flying"
By songs no one can kill.

(REPEAT CHORUS)