Would You Hide Me?

All my life, I’ve had nightmares of being hunted, I was taught
About the pogroms and the Holocaust, I mean a lot

My grandmother said “Don’t kid yourself, my dear
If for one second you think can’t happen here

Your friends and neighbors are no different than
The happy folks in Munich, Lyon, Eindhoven

If times turn bad, they’ll need a scapegoat too
And it’s dollars to donuts they’ll blame the You Know Who

Half your friends and your neighbors in the neighborhood
Will turn you into the Gestapo for the public good.”

I’ve traveled round this world and I looked hard and I looked long
I can’t say that I’ve found anything to provе my grandma wrong

So if I’m looking at you funny it’s ’cause there's somеthing I’m trying to see:
I wonder, wonder, wonder
Would you hide me?

When I first come over to visit for tea
My behavior might seem erratic
I’m poking around just assessing
The livability of your attic

Lately the question feels easier to answer than before
As the monsters tear their masks off round the world and just next door

Maybe it’s not as bad as it could be yet
They’re just picking off the people who are easiest to get

As I grew older, I came to discover:
Every nation’s a machine for hunting somebody or other

It’s never a question of “Do the hunters exist?”
It’s only a question of who is on the list

So who would we hide and what would we risk to hide them?
Are you ready to ride in the train beside them?

Or spend your life looking through the curtains out the window
Scanning for movement in the quiet streets below...

The cost of eternal vigilance is that you never ever feel free
As I wonder, wonder, wonder
Would you hide me?