Verse 1 They ain’t storm the gate with cannon fire They ain’t send no trumpet sound But they circle life with hunger and wire And they try to wear a people down No fuel for the engine, no light in the night Hospital trembling in the heat Water stop running, crop can’t move And garbage piling in the street Verse 2 Professor say look and call it plain Don’t dress it up, don’t hide the name This is a siege in a modern form Cold coercion dressed up as “change” When power decide who must bend and break And suffering become the tool Then every small land in the Caribbean Better study this hard and cruel Chorus Siege on Cuba, slow and hard Pressure from a distant yard Not with sword and not with flame But denial playing the same old game Siege on Cuba, hear the cry Darkness falling from the sky And Caribbean people must say clear Today is Cuba, tomorrow is here Verse 3 No jet fuel waiting on the runway School close down before the bell Work week shorten, buses scarce And ordinary families know it well This is not no accident of weather This is policy with a human cost And when the mighty squeeze the small Too many lives get crushed and lost Verse 4 We know that language from long ago “Take the island,” “bend the will” That is empire talking plain That is domination talking still And whether or not you like Havana That is not the question now The question is if any great power Should make whole people suffer and bow Chorus Siege on Cuba, slow and hard Pressure from a distant yard Not with sword and not with flame But denial playing the same old game Siege on Cuba, hear the cry Darkness falling from the sky And Caribbean people must say clear Today is Cuba, tomorrow is here Bridge From Kingston side to Bridgetown town From Belize to Roseau shore Small states know what pressure mean We have seen this book before So raise a voice for law and right Raise it steady, raise it strong Because silence in a neighbour’s pain Only teach the bully he belong Verse 5 Cuba send teachers, Cuba send doctors Cuba stand with the region too And now the region must find its conscience And do what history ask us do This is bigger than one government Bigger than one flag unfurled It is whether might can choke a people And still pretend to lead the world Final Chorus Siege on Cuba, slow and hard Pressure from a distant yard Not with sword and not with flame But denial playing the same old game Siege on Cuba, let it ring Freedom have a deeper meaning Caribbean, don’t stand mute When siege descend on Cuba’s root Outro Call it plain, call it true What touch Cuba could touch me and you
