I Had No Right

(album: The Green World - 2000)

God of the poor man, this is how the day began
Eight codefendants, I, Daniel Berrigan
Oh and only a layman's batch of napalm
We pulled the draft files out
We burned them in the parking lot
Better the files than the bodies of children

I had no right but for the love of you
I had no right but for the love of you

Many roads led here, walked with the suffering
Tom in Guatamala, Phillip in New Orleans
Oh it's a long road from law to justice
I went to Vietnam
I went for peace, they dropped their bombs
Right where my government knew I would be

I had no right but for the love of you
I had no right but for the love of you

And all my country saw
Were priests who broke the law

First it was question, then it was a mission
How to be American, how to be a Christian
Oh if their law is their cross and the cross is burning

The love of you
The love of you

God of the just I'll never win a peace prize
Falling like Jesus, now let the jury rise
Oh it's all of us versus all that paper
They took the only way
They know who is on trial today
Deliver us unto each other, I pray

I had no right but for the love of you
And every trial I stood, I stood for you

Eyes on the trial
8 a.m. arrival
Hands on the Bible