Two Strong Arms Lyrics - Singles - Bogle Eric

Two Strong Arms 

-Eric Bogle 

In the still heat of the afternoon 

Kritos was laid to rest 

in the dry and dusty red soil of Australia 

As the Mulberry and Cypress bloomed 

beneath the mountain crests 

so far away in Macedonia 

The children of his heart 

and the children of his blood 

In sorrow and in silence 

and in pride, around him stood 

All his sons and daughters with 

their daughters and their sons, 

The Family of the man with two strong arms 

Born a peasant's son on a mountain farm 

where a thin and grudging earth 

made hunger a gray ghost at every meal 

where life was just a grinding stone 

of poverty and death 

that crushed young and old alike 

beneath the wheel 

So before the wheel could turn 

with his family and his wife 

Kristos came down from the mountains 

searching for a better life 

Bringing only hopes and dreams with him 

to the distant southern land 

And a brave and willing heart, 

and two strong arms 

In a West Australian country town 

Kristos found a job 

for men willing to work hard 

and bend their backs 

Cutting the lofty gum trees down, 

clearing brush and scrub 

Where speaking English mattered less 

than a good sharp axe 

Driven by his dreams 

as the hard years came and went 

Kristos bent his back to every 

daylight hour that got sent 

How many golden wheat fields grow? 

how many western farms? 

The rich harvest of the man 

with two strong arms 

He worked to keep his family fed and clothed 

to give his kids the chance 

for them to try and be all they could be 

So that unlike him they'd never know 

the chains of ignorance 

or taste the bitter bread of poverty 

He wanted them to have 

all the things he'd never had 

And if all that took was blood and sweat 

He'd give both and be glad 

He lived to watch his children grow 

and match their father's dreams 

All it took was love and pride 

and two strong arms 

In the still heat of the afternoon 

Kritos was laid to rest 

in the dry and dusty red soil of Australia 

As the Mulberry and Cypress bloomed 

beneath the mountain crests 

so far away in Macedonia 

The children of his heart 

and the children of his blood 

In sorrow and in silence 

and in pride, around him stood 

All his sons and daughters with 

their daughters and their sons, 

The Family of the man with two strong arms 

The Family of the man with two strong arms