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Sail Past Lampedusa

from Simple Truths by Closet Claustrophobe

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about

This song uses the parallel lives of two lives to explore privilege.

The first child is based on a story I heard of a young boy who fled from the Sahel region of West Africa to the North African coast to travel to Europe. To avoid getting arrested, the smugglers who were running the boat designated him the captain. At 15, he would not face criminal conviction so it was 'safer' for him to be in charge of the boat.

The other story is of a European child from a well-off background who has been taken sailing since they were a small child. Now 16, they stand poised to head out to see alone for the first time.

Lampedusa is an Italian island and one of the closest parts of Europe to North Africa

To be respectful to those who have lost their lives trying to enter Europe by see, I have kept the song simple and stayed away from writing about the dangerous crossing directly. But to be clear, every life lost trying to reach safety in Europe or elsewhere is a preventable tragedy caused only by the developed world's racist and paranoid notion of security.

lyrics

I’ve never seen the sea before
My home was in an ocean of sand
I’ve left it behind now,
There’s nothing left there anyhow
My mother said to me
Head for the northern coast
And find
A boat to take you away from here

I’ve been sailing since I was six
The sea is my second home
Now I’m sixteen
I’m setting out alone
My father said to me
Stick close to the coast
Or the current
Might take me away from here

I've never seen so many people before
As are camped along the coast
But I won't be here long
I gave all the money
My mother made
To some men
Who said they had a boat
To take me away from here

I saw the boats on the news again
If you can even call them that
Overflowing with people
Hoping for help and home
My father bought
This beautiful boat
Just for me
That could take me anywhere

So why can't we
Sail past Lampedusa?
Where are we
Supposed to go?
How can it
Be a crime
To try to save
Lives?

I'd never seen the sea before
My home was in an ocean of sand
I've left it behind me
There's nothing left there for me
The men said to me
Your in charge now
So go
Take them away from here.

So why can't we
Sail past Lampedusa?
Where are we
Supposed to go?
How can it
Be a crime
To try to save
Lives?

credits

from Simple Truths, released September 4, 2019

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Closet Claustrophobe Glasgow, UK

Closet Claustrophobe is an anxious agender multi-instrumentalist and singer based in Glasgow, Scotland. They write songs about their mental health and gender and songs inspired by their love of nature, mythology, humans and dragons. They also write songs inspired by their hatred of humans. They have a lot of complicated feelings about humanity. They really love dragons. Dragons don't vote Tory. ... more

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