In The Fold - Matana Roberts

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine

Oh, this little light of mine

I thought maybe mama would come looking for me

I’m not sure what was happening but if I do recall

I could hear mama screaming his name in a defeated kind of lovesickness

As I ran, I was so scared but I knew they would find me

I never been so hungry

Daddy taught me how to fashion a knife out of a stick

And I tried to catch me a rabbit but that old rabbit was faster than me

One day, I came out of the clearing and I started exploring the edges of the

woods

And there was this oddly covered plate

I pulled back the fabric and it was dripping

With gravy and biscuits and grits and fatback

I knew it might be a trap but my stomach defied me

And it became routine

Each day, it would be set further out of reach

And each day, I would inch a bit closer towards home

A new home, home, a new home, home, a new home

I am a child of the wind, even daddy said so

We used to race and I would always win

And he’d say «Run baby run, run like the wind, that’s it, the wind»

Memory is a most unusual thing, one day

I never knew how they found me in those woods

But their love drew me close somehow

I never saw mama again and I had somehow knew that daddy had walked on

Many years later, I heard that mama had died in the asylum

It hurt me so, I prayed, she wasn’t taken in her lonesomeness

Those hooded bastards beat her senseless

To the point where she could not remember their transgressions

That’s good, I suppose

I am a child of the wind, even daddy said so

We used to race and I would always win

And he’d say «Run baby run, run like the wind, that’s it, the wind»

Memory is a most unusual thing, someday

As the evening shades are drawn and this day comes to an end

I am reminded of the shades of life are being drawn with me

My physical window will soon be darkened as I sit in here and try and write

My mind has gone many places

I am not the person I have been

Well, things could be worse

It’s so long for now

Forgive us, we pray

Forgive us, we pray

Forgive us, we pray

I am a child of the wind, even daddy said so

We used to race and I would always win

And he’d say «Run baby run, run like that wind, that’s it, the wind»

Memory is a most unusual thing

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine

This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine

Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine