I wanna be a paperback writer
Flame igniter
Invited into minds across the land
Gotta make you understand,
syndicating words and pictures
Depict the
impression I get,
that which history gives
As we spend each day hustlin’
and tryin to live

See, if you ask me, it’s increasingly clear
that we only really fight against the least of our fears
otherwise, I think it’s plain, it’d drive us insane,
Do you know how badly climate change can fuck with your brain?
Not to mention systems of violence,
no wonder we deny it
Not even outright, because that’d start fights
It’s better just to look away and try to play nice

I wanna tell stories that say
“Don’t look away”
That invite the ones that hear them
to enter the fray
‘Cause while we’re playin’ nice
Other folks are playin’ dirty
They’re settin’ shit in motion
Yeah you bet that I’m worried!

Four million people, minds bodies and souls
show up together to say
Slow your roll!
That’s the kind of tableau this tapestry needs
It takes one hell of an opening scene
to draw in the gaze
of a wandering mind
Cut through the static and invite you to find
yourself represented,
a chance to identify with another
someone who was other,
but then we discover
that our stories are one
And there’s work to be done

So let’s get to work, I’ll write, and you read
and we’ll meet in the streets
or wherever we need to be
to bend the arc toward justice
This much you can trust,
It’s not me, it’s us!