Halley's Comet
Linda Allen
I was nine years old that awful year in nineteen hundred ten
Living in Chicago in a brownstone tenement
At night we'd sit out on the stoop, we'd wonder and we'd pray
Watching for the comet, a million miles away
CHO: It was Halley's comet, blazing through the sky
Like a heavenly angel, taking us to die
Some thought the Lord would save us and others only cried
Me I prayed that comet would pass by
We'd heard the French astronomer, Camille __________
Had said the comet's tail was deadly gas, cyanogen
On May 18 through Halley's tail the earth would surely pass
And every living thing on earth would be killed by the gas (CHO)
My mother stuffed the cracks in all the windows and the doors
We bought up lots of groceries down at the corner store
My aunt she had hysterics, she cried and cried for days
A neighbor tried to hang himself to cheat the deadly rays (CHO)
We were kind of disappointed, nothing happened after all
And we all went back to living, having wars and playing ball
But for a while we all were neighbors on this little planet Earth
When you think you just might lose it all, you learn how much
it's worth (CHO)
Well I have a grandchild now, you know it makes me kind of sad
She worries about the bomb, she has the same nightmares I had
We couldn't do too much to stop the comet way back then
But not to stop this awful bomb would be a mortal sin (CHO)
@astronomy @bomb
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