Momentary

[Intro]

Where we’re from, we’re born out of a cloud of witnesses

Who watched or walked through cotton-rich swamp-sick streets clamoring for freedom

Who snuck along the piny margins, meeting under the moon and moss

Just far enough out of sight of the white columns and the patrolling guns

Laying out plans at the feet of the stars

Looking upward for a glinting nod

A beam of dusty light to mark the way

[Verse 1]

Put us under and when the moment is passed

Slowly bring us back

And if it drags on, no need for alarm

Disconnect us

[Chorus]

This is only momentary

Swayed into a trance

This is just monetary

We are all so innocent

[Verse 2]

Take your pleasure or pain, whatever you lust

It comes right to your door

Except if the messenger dare show his face

It’s yours on a platter

[Chorus]

This is only momentary

Flay us for our skin

This is just monetary

We are all so innocent and dumb

[Outro]

When we die, the neighbors will bring casseroles

Drag shows will be held in our honor

Prayers will be shuttled upwards like paper boats slipped up onto a pond by patient hands

Fluttering in clouds of stars and interstate exhaust

In Urdu, in Muskogee, in Spanish, in Somali

The community centers and union halls will swell with songs that were old before we were born

The marchers in the boulevard will take their knee, raise their fist, drop their face

Silent in the midday traffic like a stone in a quick river

When we die, our beloved, our kinfolk, fear not

We rise