Stand as We Run by SharonA


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The Song Challenge: Mummy, Where Did The Funny Little Man In The Garden Go? PARIS -- The dormant Garden Gnome Liberation Front has sprung back to life, stealing about 20 gnomes during a nighttime raid on a Paris exhibition. "We demand ... that garden gnomes are no longer ridiculed and that they be released into their natural habitat," the Front's Paris wing said in a statement following its weekend strike. France's first garden gnome exhibition in the exclusive Bagatelle park on the outskirts of the capital opened last month and has been a hit with the public as chic Parisians develop a taste for kitsch culture. The Garden Gnome Liberation Front vanished from the public eye in 1997 after a northern French court handed its ringleader a suspended prison sentence and fined him for his part in the disappearance of around 150 gnomes. The only suspected sighting of the organization since then was a mass suicide of gnomes at Briey in eastern France in September 1998, when 11 of them were found dangling by their necks under a bridge. A letter found nearby said: "When you read these few words we will no longer be part of your selfish world, where we serve merely as pretty decoration." Now, the sight of 2,000 of the gaudy, colorful creatures dotted around the Bagatelle gardens has clearly proved too big a temptation for the group to avoid. It warned that it would strike again unless the show was closed and all the gnomes released. Organizers told the daily Le Parisien that they had no intention of bowing to the Front's demands.

Stand as We Run by SharonA
(Tune: "Band on the Run" by Paul McCartney and Wings)

SharonA's Comments: The following entry is dedicated to MMario, who sent me some lovely links to info about the Garden Gnome Liberation Front. Thanks, MM!

Stuck outside these poor halls,
Painted bright for decor,
Never seein' Gnomes run wild again.
Why? Who harmed us? Who harmed us? Youuu...

If I ever get touted, we're
Gonna lift 'em all away.
Take my friends from this Paris street �
All we need is a Chevrolet
If I ever get touted clear,
If we ever get touted clear.

Down the Seine we floated witha mighty splash
On some fella's tube � we're gone!
And the cursed gnome said, "Oh, to heck with lawn care!
I hope our paint don't run"

Stand as we run!
Stand as we run!
For a little man of concrete can-
-not stretch his legs, not one
So we stand as we run, stand as we run.

Well, the gendarme pursued us heavy guys
Seein' gnomes gone from the lawn
And they wailed while wringing hands, "We will beware
Of the hobbits on the run."

Stand as we run!
Stand as we run!
For a little man of concrete can-
-not stretch his legs, not one
So we stand as we run, stand as we run.

Well, our flight has ended. Like Le Miz, we've hurled
Our gauntlets to the ground:
In the town we'll lurk and pop up ev'rywhere
Till our brothers are unbound!

Stand as we run!
Stand as we run!
And we're round with pudge, hell to budge.
We're kitsch for ev'ry boor
And we stand as we run, stand as we run.