Last night I heard of the death of a stranger to me 'Though I've known many more of her kind Scattered in bed-sits and in 'hard-to-let' flats And anywhere else they could find Half a world distant for half a life here With the certainty at the day's end Still they'd have to return While something remains to defend There's a slow waltz for Chile All down through the years Of Pinochet, murder and dread With no quick step solution Just the will to resist 'Til the last decent Chilean is dead All the stencils and the arguments, the smoking and the damp These were things that I came to resent Until a, "Who's going to miss me if I miss now and again?" Soon came to mean that I never went But, drinking, I'd be there, with my fist in the air 'To consolidate we must advance' Now a cold wind from Chile has frozen this fool In suffering there just is no romance. Last night I heard of the death of a stranger to me And I didn't ask how she died Because the way that she lived was all that we need to know While we've still got time to decide