The Sign Songtext
von Eric Bogle

In the summer of last year
In a city far from here
That stands on the shores of the fair Pacific sea
I walked its pleasant streets
No view in mind, no one to meet
Content to wander where my aimless feet led me

A few streets from my hotel
I passed an old stone wall
Where three words had been scrawled by an unknown hand
When I read them I stopped dead
In disbelief I shook my head
For the words on that wall read "Free Bobby Sands"

As the sun began the fall
And the day began to die
Thought I heard the wild geese call
From a dark and empty sky


For long minutes I stood there
In that busy thoroughfare
While the past rose sharp and clear in my mind′s eye
I saw it all again
The passion, hate and pain
The indifference and the shame as a young man died

But it was all so long ago
And who now cares or knows
Why Bobby Sands chose his lonely death
But to the one who wrote that sign
It seems that Bobby's light still shines
The words rang from another time but the paint was fresh

As the sun began the fall
And the day began to die
Thought I heard the wild geese call
From a dark and empty sky

So I went down to the sea
To let its wild song comfort me
But my thoughts would not let me be and unchecked they ran

Through my future, present and past
Not for the first time nor the last
I heard them ask "Could you be the kind of man


Who would gladly sacrifice everything, even life
And put no price on a cause or an ideal?"
No answer echoed in my heart
So I turned and I walked back
Through the twilight′s deepening dark to my hotel