Malvina Reynolds

Lock the Windows

Malvina Reynolds


Lock the windows, close the doors,
Keep the world out.
There's sorrow running in the streets, 
There's anger all about.
I do not want to hear of it,
I do not want the fear of it,
I'm keeping myself clear of it,
Keep the world out.

I have a window on the world--
My television screen-- 
There's lotions and there's potions
And there's stories in between.
I sit and nod and sit and stare,
Outside the world is everywhere,
But what it wants I do not care,
Or what the noise can mean.

There's someone pounding on the door
I do not want to see. 
He's brimming full of trouble
And it might come off on me. 
When I go out to work or eat 
I see him marching in the street-- 
I kick at him with hands and feet,
Or hand him from a tree.