[Verse 1 - Andra Day]
Oh say can you see
By the dawn of creation
I'm the queen of all queens
I gave birth to all nations
But y'all don't care about me
If I ain't standing here naked
You can't have it for free
And you can't come and just take it
My body, my choice
My temple, my doctrine
My mind and my voice
My rights and my options
Fuck at all with your rules
Not concerned with your judgments
You ain't God or my king
Shit, you ain't even my husband
But who would you be without me?
Baby, what's clarity without the moon?
You wanna control everything
So you never have to control you
[Verse 2 - Andra Day]
Let a nigga come in
Try and sit on my table
And only came with a fork
Trynna leave with the neighbor
Now because of my joy
I'm just 'posed to stay dribbling?
Nigga, I'm so confused
Is this what you call winning?
But hey, how you gon' shoot without me?
See dust can't clump til something make it move
You wanna control everything
Imma just toss this [?] into the womb
[Spokenword by Staceyann Chin]
Everybody with whom we have come into contact has systematically taken advantage of us
History is only a testimony to our ability to make music from noise
Just watch how we move when we're moving
How we keep loving unworthy partners
Raising children with little help from anybody
No love, no respect from the suspicious white woman who criticizes the way we mother our children while they pay us almost nothing for mothering theirs
I don't even have time to address the fetishized hatred we endure from white men
So you'll forgive me if I don't give a fuck about your cooperation of feelings
Fuck you for wanting me to hold you while you sink your racist, sexist knives into my already bleeding back
Fuck you for needing me to absolve you or your many many sins against me
Fuck you for putting everybody's needs before my own: black men, white men, black women, the fucking dog, the cat, my boss, the neighbor's rabbit, the fucking government, the endangered fucking turtles. Why are everybody's needs more urgent than my own, when do we worry about me, my feelings, my needs, my rights, my body, my safety, my fucking life
When do we begin to send to the endangered black woman
I am thinking the time is now and saying the time is now
Not tomorrow, not next week, not fucking next year
I say we begin here, now, today, this minute and say: Fuck your countless indifference, your hesitation, my time is now, my feelings are now, make time for them, make space for them, deal with your race shit, your gender shit, your sexuality shit now before we set fire to everything we take care of for you, set fire to everything and watch the whole lot of it burn
