Tripwire
Just because you don’t speak the language
Doesn’t mean that you can’t understand
Just because you don’t speak the language
Doesn’t mean that you can’t understand
The twist in the script of the insult
Scrawled on the back of your hand
Torn from the pages of scripture
Sprayed on a wall in the frays of a flag
Kisses forbidden on lips
And all of your fine clothes worn into rags
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
Don’t open the door ‘cos they’re coming
Don’t open the door ‘cos they’re here
Above there’s an ominous humming
Below there’s a murmur of prayer
Torn from the pages of scandal
Sprayed on a wall in the frays of a flag
Kisses forbidden on lips
And all of your fine clothes blown into rags
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a cross in the line of the circuit
There’s a voice that you might overhear
There’s a lens making the picture perfect
They say you have nothing to fear
Torn from the pages of pamphlets
Thrown in the air like confetti in church
Far, far away there’s a target
And the sound of an army just starting to march
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
Just because I don’t read the language
Doesn’t mean that I’m blind to the threat
Though I thought there was more to forgiveness
Than all we conveniently forget
Torn from the pages of history
Repeated again and again and again
You’re either for or against us
And that is how the hatred begins
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
There’s a tripwire
Tripwire, tripwire, tripwire
Released on Jan 1, 2013
Published by ℗ Elvis Costello Under Exclusive License To Blue Note Records