Ani DiFranco Follow

i had to leave the house of fashion

go forth naked from its doors

cuz women should still be allies

not competitors

and i had to leave the house of god

cuz the 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 priviligage 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

that 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