On Beauty - Akua Naru

Yo, we started out lost, born in a war

Searchin' for escape, sung to the Lord

Tell it all, when we enter the door

Just for four hours long

Spit in the mirror, Jesus watch from the wall

Features, he said «Come as you are»

So we come as a scar, shards of glass on the neck is the trauma

Dark behind the mask, patent leather on smash

Church hats cover wigs over so-called naps

Spirits is high, saints try to relax

Dr. King, he cocoa butter,

clap, is attached to a past

Post, present, traumatic stress, patterned under the lash

I wonder, what happens to the questions we never ask?

As time passes, travellin' on that new bus pass

Broke and Mama out of gas,

Couldn’t afford a cab, pass the ride up in that new S-class

(You're black) as the face of God, see your star

Brightest like, scholars know who you are

(Poor) on the boulevard

World scars, wealth built an empire

(Ugly) till you in the dark, aroused and spread apart

Portrait been the work of art, beauty on

(You're woman), you in this modern war

Caged in confusion in a world that’s never known beauty

reflect, kind of blue

Under the stained glass, ten percent tithes of hard-earned cash

Hundred percent of rent late, confused by the math

The pressure saved by an organ playin' «This too shall pass»

Panoramic view is on from the pew in the back

Peek the Devil jugglin' the blame of another relapse

Watch him laugh, attention

the entrance, casin' the victim since the night before last

Now the list goes on and on beyond the length of the song

Father of David, father of Joshua, father of John

While our mothers pray for a compass, figure where they belong

In the name of the Son, our name’s gone, 15:21

Our daughters haunted by

read the scripture, «Bluest Eye» on our tongues

As the choir rise to harmonize, tragedy

whisper, «God is good all the time»

(You're black) as the face of God, see your star

Brightest like, scholars know who you are

(Poor) on the boulevard

World scars, wealth built an empire

(Ugly) till you in the dark, aroused and spread apart

Portrait been the work of art, beauty on

(You're woman), you in this modern war

Caged in confusion in a world that’s never known beauty

(You're black) as the face of God, see your star

Brightest like, scholars know who you are

(Poor) on the boulevard

World scars, wealth built an empire

(Ugly) till you in the dark, aroused and spread apart

Portrait been the work of art, beauty on

(You're woman), you in this modern war

Caged in confusion in a world that’s never known beauty

Caged in confusion in a world that’s never known beauty