Would you fight and die 
Would you live the lie 
As they sell you war and peace
Then you watch your love decease
On the storm front of another day
And I didn’t make it that way
I’m just calling it as I see it
I couldn’t ever grow to be it
As Colin said that Africa’s a drain on society
And my blood boils through my sobriety 
Because those kids are living and dying 
And no one knows they’re even trying 
Or like that time Naiomi said 
Something about the way she felt about the ones who were dead
And I want to smack her full in the face
For all that she just lets go to waste 
And we may only be fourteen 
But it’s old enough to wake to the dream 
And I know there’s violence within me
I can feel it breathe when there’s no one looking at me
And I scream freedom into the air 
But it doesn’t start out there
You can’t build your inner harmony 
On bricks you throw at your enemy 
But it startles my soul 
How some people get old 
With the bitterness inside
And my pride 
Burns my skin 
Til I let it go into the arms of Him 
He who would take all from me 
Leave me with nothing and just let it be 
Now I hear the screams from the strip 
And hear the rifles they equip 
With bullets to end a life
Do they wonder if she was someone’s wife
When they take her down 
And it was years ago I wanted to drown 
Because I couldn’t bear the weight
Of all the accumulated hate
That seemed to weigh on me 
Someone I love is dead and there’s an Iraqi 
Girl somewhere on the planet 
Who’s lost and alone and dammit 
I won’t let this go to the wall 
I used to not be this tall 
But now I’m thirty three
And there is more that can come from me 
Than just a woeful gaze
I am no white woman to save
Populations from their demise
It’s just I see myself in their eyes
And I must admit my skin 
Was nothing to the British who’s politics merely skim
What they did here 
A few short years ago 
I guess as a humanity we learn slow
That we are all people 
Mosque or steeple 
We live under the same God 
And our bodies go back to the same sod
To nourish what is yet to come 
As we succumb 
To a passing age
It’s all I can do to control my rage
And write it on a page
If there’s merit to the sage
She must be a force for good 
I breathe out and the trees in the wood
Breathe me in 
When is it time for Love to begin