When I Was Four Years Old

They Tried To Test My I.q.

They Showed Me A Picture

Of 3 Oranges And A Pear

They Said,

Which One Is Different?

It Does Not Belong

They Taught Me Different Is Wrong

But When I Was 13 Years Old

I Woke Up One Morning

Thighs Covered In Blood

Like A War

Like A Warning

That I Live In A Breakable Takeable Body

An Ever Increasingly Valuable Body

That A Woman Had Come In The Night To Replace Me

Deface Me

See,

My Body Is Borrowed

Yeah, I Got It On Loan

For The Time In Between My Mom And Some Maggots

I Don't Need Anyone To Hold Me

I Can Hold My Own

I Got Highways For Stretchmarks

See Where I've Grown

I Sing Sometimes

Like My Life Is At Stake

'cause You're Only As Loud

As The Noises You Make

I'm Learning To Laugh As Hard

As I Can Listen

'cause Silence

Is Violence

In Women And Poor People

If More People Were Screaming Then I Could Relax

But A Good Brain Ain't Diddley

If You Don't Have The Facts

We Live In A Breakable Takeable World

An Ever Available Possible World

And We Can Make Music

Like We Can Make Do

Genius Is In A Back Beat

Backseat To Nothing If You're Dancing

Especially Something Stupid

Like I.q.

For Every Lie I Unlearn

I Learn Something New

I Sing Sometimes For The War That I Fight

'cause Every Tool Is A Weapon -

If You Hold It Right.