‘Tis of Thee
Ani DiFranco
They caught the last poor man
On a poor man’s vacation.
They cuffed him and confiscated his stuff,
And they dragged his black ass down to the station.
And said, “OK, the streets are safe now.
All your pretty white children can come out and see spot run.”
They came out of their houses,
And they looked around,
But they didn’t see no one.
My country ‘tis of thee
To take swings at each other on the talk show TV.
Why don’t you just go ahead and turn off the sun
Because we’ll never live long enough
To undo everything they’ve done to you.
Above 96th Street
They’re handing out smallpox blankets so people don’t freeze.
The old dogs have got a new trick.
It’s called criminalize the symptoms
while you spread the disease.
And I hold on hard to something
Between my teeth when I’m sleeping.
I wake up, and my jaw aches,
And the earth is full of earthquakes.
My country ‘tis of thee
To take swings at each other on the talk show TV.
Why don’t you just go ahead and turn off the sun
Because we’ll never live long enough
To undo everything they’ve done to you.
They caught the last poor man
Flying away in a shiny red cape.
They took him down to the station
And they said, “Boy, you should’ve known better
Than to try to escape.”
I ran away with the circus
Because there’s still some honest work left for bearded ladies.
But it’s not the same going town to town
Since they put everyone in jail
Except the Cleavers and the Bradys.
My country ‘tis of thee
To take swings at each other on the talk show TV.
Why don’t you just go ahead and turn off the sun
Because we’ll never live long enough
To undo everything they’ve done to you.
