Ani DiFranco Follow

I had to leave the house of fashion

And go forth naked from its doors

'cause women should be allies

And not competitors

I had to leave the house of god

Because the cross replaced the wheel

And the goddesses were all out in the garden

With the plants that nurture and heal

I had to leave the house of privilege

Spend christmas homeless and feeling bad

To learn privilege is a headache

That you don't know that you don't have

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 leave the house of conformity

In order to make art

I had to be more and less true

To learn to tell the two apart

I had to leave the house of fear

Just about as soon as I could crawl

Ignore my face on a wanted poster

Stuck to the post office wall

I had leave the house of self-importance

To doodle my first tattoo

To 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

And the power of transcendence

Made its grace a practice we can employ