His young life was as delicate as the wing of a butterfly And as fragile as a spider's web
For him we cry Because when he dies We all do Did Ahmed not deserve a life? Ahmed never hurt a fly Ahmed never knew the politicians he was murdered by Certain times Ahmed wished that he could be a bird and fly Beyond the sky Escape the curse of birth that he was burdened by Ahmed never grew to let your racism internalise Water poured from every pore in his corpse while the nurses cried Ahmed was a beautiful person like you or I But are we?
Ahmed could have been a doctor, lawyer or an engineer Could have been a superstar but his life ended here Guess he was a shooting star burn bright and disappear To some he seems to represent a menace in this hemisphere Let me here make the very essence of this message clear He was precious, many die like him every year Ahmed was a victim of resentment and relentless fear Now his soul surfs the waves I wish we could have kept him here
The sea, the sea, the sea, it holds our secrets [holds our secrets] The sea, the sea, the sea, it holds his soul [holds his soul] They call him Ahmed The sea, the sea, the sea, it holds our secrets [holds our secrets] The sea, the sea, the sea, it holds his soul [holds his soul] They call him Ahmed
Ahmed's ancestors introduced to Europe Greek philosophy Brought with them irrigation, mathematics and astronomy Symbolically, the irony of this horror isn't lost on me Trying to get to Europe via Greece where he's lost at sea Ahmed not Achmed, it's Ahmed He's that dead Toddler lying lifeless on the beach with his back bent Arms spread, reaching the direction that his dad went If he made it here would have been bullied for his accent He was captured by the ocean Paralysed and frozen While these parasites sat and typed, analysing clothing Now for resources we all compete Beyond the talk of war and peace And talk of porous border there is corpses on the shore of Greece They found a teddy next to where his body was found The sea swallowed him, politics has swallowed him now And those responsible, Ahmed's ghost will follow them now To the family all we can say is we are sorry he drowned Because...
The sea, the sea, the sea, it holds our secrets [holds our secrets] The sea, the sea, the sea, it holds his soul [holds his soul] They call him Ahmed The sea, the sea, the sea, it holds our secrets [holds our secrets] The sea, the sea, the sea, it holds his soul [holds his soul] They call him Ahmed