Shroud

I had to leave the house of fashion Go forth naked from its doors 'cause women should be allies Not competitors And I had to leave the house of God 'cause Cross replaced the wheel And the goddesses were out in the garden With the plants that nourish and heal I had to leave the house of privilege Spend Christmas homeless and feeling bad To learn that privilege is a headache That you don't know, that you don't have And I had to leave the house of television To start noticing the clouds It's amazing the stuff you see When you finally shed that shroud I had to leave the house of conformity In order to make art I had to be more or less true To learn to tell the two apart And I had to leave the house of fear Just about as soon as I could crawl Ignore my face on the 'Wanted' posters Stuck to the post office wall I had to leave the house of self-importance To doodle my first tattoo Realize a tattoo is no more permanent Than I am And who ever said that life is suffering I think they had their finger on the pulse of joy Ain't the power of transcendence The greatest one we can employ? --- Shroud - Ani DiFranco