Year -65 in Rågsved, at the edge of STockholm
stood Rune Henry Johansson and berated a protestor
"You may just as well mind your own business, and leave others alone.
What the damn do people like you know about war? And what is FNL?"

He pulled the thumb out of the belt of his leather jacked and lit up a cigarette
then I sat down in his car and drove to Älvsjö
On the radio news they were reading a Washington telegram
about Johnson sending a thousand soldiers to save south Vietnam

It hurt in his hip per usual as he was watching TV a saturday night
and watched Saigons police officer shoot a prisoner from FNL
It was kind of hard to fall asleep afterwards, he had to nag on himself
"Mind yourself and leave others alone and you'll do just fine"

When they came with lists at work and wanted him to work
Johansson asked them to go to hell so that he could eat alone
but when the engineer came and nodded: "Well said, Johansson"
he just stared back and then turned around and left

And the same year as he retired he put some change
in a rustling collection box, held by a protestor
He thought something ought to be said and cleared his throath
"Yea, what the devil do they have there to do anyway?"

And no one knows where his nickle went. Perhaps it became a book to a child?
Perhaps it became a bit of a flag, or rice for a partisan?
Perhaps it became a bullet in the wall of a bombed house in Hué?
When the pain came at night he often thought about that

Water hollows the rock. It works slowly, but it works
To convince Johansson took many years
and every coin that Johansson put in the box
became a drip in the ocean that drowned an empires war machine


When USA bombed the ramparts and mined HAiphong
the anger sat like a bump in his throath of Henry Johansson
and had he met Nixon between four eyes alone on a night
he'd get such a beating he wouldn't recognize himself

When the peace agreements were signed and many said the war was over
he put his nickle in the box every saturday like before
Rune Henry Johansson never became an activist
but the one that wakes last might be the last one to forget

Today Vietnam is freed on the peoples First of May
and Johansson bought half a bottle vodka and put on his finest suit
He walked with the rest of us in line, Rune Henry Johansson
He's human just like you and me, he was there and took Saigon