"I want ArethaTo Set This to Music"
By: Sherley Anne Williams
I want Aretha to set this to music:
I surprise girlhood
in your face; I know
my own, have been a
prisoner of my own
dark skin and fleshy
lips, walked tht same high
butty strut despite
all this; rejected
the mask my mother
wore so stolidly
through womanhood and
wear it now myself.
I see the mask, sense
the girl and the woman
you became, wonder
if mask and woman
are one, if pain is
the sum of all your
knowing, the victim the
only game you learned.
Old and in pain and
bearing up bearing up
and hurt and age These
are the signs of our
womanhood but I'll
make book Bessie did
more than just endure.
hear it?
hear it?
Oh I'm lonesome now
but I won't be lonesome long
Say I'm lonely now
but I don't need to be lonesome long
You know it take a man wid style and passion
to make a single woman ding these lonely
one sided bed blues
Never had a man talk to me
to say the things he say
Never had a man talk like this, honey,
say the things you say.
Man talk so strong
till I can't tell Night from Day.
His voice be low come slow
and he be movin all the while
His voice be low words come slow
and he be movin, Lawd! all the while.
I'm his radio and he sho
know how to tune my dial.
My bed one sided from me
sleepin alone all the time
My bed wop-sided from me
sleeping alone so much of the time
And the fact that it empty
show how this man is messin wid my head
What's out there knockin
Is what the world
don't get enough of
I surprise girlhood
in your face; I know
my own, have been a
prisoner of my own
dark skin and fleshy
lips, walked tht same high
butty strut despite
all this; rejected
the mask my mother
wore so stolidly
through womanhood and
wear it now myself.
I see the mask, sense
the girl and the woman
you became, wonder
if mask and woman
are one, if pain is
the sum of all your
knowing, the victim the
only game you learned.
Old and in pain and
bearing up bearing up
and hurt and age These
are the signs of our
womanhood but I'll
make book Bessie did
more than just endure.
hear it?
hear it?
Oh I'm lonesome now
but I won't be lonesome long
Say I'm lonely now
but I don't need to be lonesome long
You know it take a man wid style and passion
to make a single woman ding these lonely
one sided bed blues
Never had a man talk to me
to say the things he say
Never had a man talk like this, honey,
say the things you say.
Man talk so strong
till I can't tell Night from Day.
His voice be low come slow
and he be movin all the while
His voice be low words come slow
and he be movin, Lawd! all the while.
I'm his radio and he sho
know how to tune my dial.
My bed one sided from me
sleepin alone all the time
My bed wop-sided from me
sleeping alone so much of the time
And the fact that it empty
show how this man is messin wid my head
What's out there knockin
Is what the world
don't get enough of