When I'm Called Home

Abbey Lincoln · Other Songs - Abbey Lincoln

When I'm called home

I will bring a book

That tells of strange and funny turns

And of the heart it took

To keep on living in a world

That never was my own

A world of haunted memories

Of other worlds unknown.

I'll tell them of the trouble here

When they call me home.

When I'm called home

I will sing a song

And tell them of a beggar's life

Where everything goes wrong

Where everybody's hopes and dreams

Are shattering by the wind.



I'll tell them of a ghostly world

Of us and they and him.

I'll tell them how the shadows fall

When they call me home.

When I'm called home

I will tell the stars

Of the battles that were lost

In a world of wars.

I will tell the rivers

Of the children lost at sea

Of a how a soul is bartered

And what it costs a spirit free.

Hallelujah tell a story, oh,

When they call me home.