I heard the sound of your bike,
As your wheels hit the gravel,
Then your engine in the driveway
Cutting off
And I pushed through the screen door
And I stood out on the porch
Thinking fight, fight, fight
At all costs,
But instead I let you in,
Just like I've always done
And I sat you down and offered you a beer
And across the kitchen table
I fired several rounds,

The windows of my soul
Are made of one way glass
Don't bother looking into my eyes
If there's something you want to know,
Just ask
I got a dead bolt stroll
Where I'm going is clear
I won't wait for you to wonder
I'll just tell you why I'm here

'Cause I know the biggest crime
Is just to throw up your hands
Say
This has nothing to do with me

the heat is so great
it plays tricks with the eye
it turns the road to water
and then from water to sky
and there's a crack in the concrete floor
and it starts at the sink
there's a bathroom in a gas station
and i've locked myself in it to think

and back in the city
the sun bakes the trash on the curb
the men are pissing in doorways
and the rats run in herds
i've got a dream of your face

I do it for the joy it brings
Because I'm a joyful girl
Because the world owes me nothing
And we owe each other the world
I do it because it's the least I can do
I do it because I learned it from you
I do it just because I want to
Because I want to

Everything I do is judged
And they mostly get it wrong
But oh well
'Cuz the bathroom mirror has not budged

Me and the other kids from the neighborhood
We played out on the street all summer long
Rule was, we had to go home at night when the street lights came on.
We were oblivious to the rest of the world
And we'd hold up the cars in the street
And we'd always play boys against girls, and both sides would cheat.
Strange men would stop their cars at the curb

They told you your music
Could reach millions
That the choice was up to you
You told me they always pay for lunch
And they believe in what I do
And I wonder if you miss your old friends
Once you've proven what you're worth
Yeah I wonder
When you're a big star
Will you miss the earth

And I know you would always want more
I know you would never be done

You think I wouldn't have him
Unless I could have him by the balls
You think I just dish it out
You don't think I take it at all
You think I am stronger
You think I walk taller than the rest
You think I'm usually wearing the pants
Just 'cause I rarely wear a dress

Well...

When you look at me
You see my purpose,
See my pride
You think I just saddle up my anger

Amazing grace
How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost
But now I'm found
Was blind but now I see

'Twas grace that taught
My heart to fear
And grace that fear relieved
How precious did
That grace appear
The hour I first believed

Through many dangers
Toils and snares
I have already come
'Twas grace that brought me
Safely thus far

You are subtle as a window pane
Standing in my view
But I will wait for it to rain
So that I can see you
You call me up at night
When there's no light passing through
And you think that I don't understand
But I do

We don't say everything that we could
So that we can say later
Oh, you misunderstood
I hold my cards up
Close to my chest
I say what I have to
And I hold back the rest

Tiptoeing through the used condoms
Strewn on the piers
Off the west side highway
Sunset behind the skyline of jersey
Walking towards the water
With a fetus holding court in my gut
My body highjacked
My tits swollen and sore
The river has more colors at sunset
Than my sock drawer ever dreamed of
I could wake up screaming sometimes
But I don't

I'm sorry I didn't sound more excited on the phone
I'm sorry that after all these years
I've left you feeling unrequited and alone
Brought you to tears

I guess I never loved you quite as well
As the way you loved me
I guess I'll never really be able to tell you
How sorry I am

I don't know what it is about you
I just know it's not what it was

Squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
And I'm beyond your peripheral vision
So you might want to turn your head
Cuz someday you're going to get hungry
And eat most of the words you just said

Both my parents taught me about good will
And I have done well by their names

Squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
And I'm beyond your peripheral vision
So you might want to turn your head
Cuz someday you're going to get hungry
And eat most of the words you just said

Both my parents taught me about good will
And I have done well by their names

Just the thought of our bed
Makes me crumble like the plaster
Where you punched the wall beside my bed
And I try to draw the line
But it ends up running down the middle of me
Most of the time

Boys get locked up in some prison
Girls get locked up in some house
And it don't matter if it's a warden or a lover or a spouse
You just can't talk to 'em
You just can't reason

Think I'm going for a walk now
I feel a little unsteady
I don't want nobody to follow me
'Cept maybe you
I could make you happy you know
If you weren't already
I could do a lot of things
And I do

Tell you the truth I prefer
The worst of you
Too bad you had to have a better half
She's not really my type
But I think you two are forever
And I hate to say it but

I cannot name this
I cannot explain this
And I really don't want to
Just call me shameless
I can't even slow this down
Let alone stop this
And I keep looking around
But I cannot top this

If I had any sense
I guess I'd fear this
I guess I'd keep it down
So no one would hear this
I guess I'd shut my mouth and rethink a minute
But I can't shut it now
'Cuz there's something in it

Tonight you stooped to my level
I am your mangy little whore
You are trying to find your underwear
And then your socks and then the door
And you're trying to find a reason
Why you have to leave
I know it's 'cuz you think you're Adam
And you think I'm Eve

You rhapsodize about beauty
And my eyes glaze
Everything that I love is ugly
I mean really, you would be amazed
Just do me a favor

I opened the fire door to four lips
None of which were mine
Kissing
Tightened my belt around my hips
Where your hands were missing
And stepped out into the cold
Collar high
Under the slate grey sky
The air was smoking and the streets were dry
And I wasn't joking when I said
Good Bye
Magazine quality men talking on the corner
French, no less much less of them then us

Life use to be lifelike. Now it's more like showbiz. I wake up in the night I don't know where the bathroom is. And I don't know what town I'm in or what sky I am under. And I wake up in the darkness I don't have the will anymore to wonder. And everyone has a skeleton a closet to keep it in. And you're mine.

The butter melts out of habit
The toast isn't even warm
The waitress and the man in the plaid shirt
Play out a scene they've played
So many times before
I am watching the sun stumble home in the morning
From a bar on the east side of town
And the coffee is just water dressed in brown
Beautiful but boring
He visited me yesterday
He noticed my fingers
And asked me if I would play

I got pulled over in west Texas
So they could look inside my car
He said are you an American citizen
I said
Yes sir
So far
They made sure I wasn't smuggling
Someone in from Mexico
Someone willing to settle for America
'Cause there's nowhere else to go

And every state line
There's a new set of laws
And every police man
Comes equipped with extended claws

In a forest of stone
Underneath the corporate canopy
Where the sun rarely filters down
The ground is not so soft
Not so soft

They build buildings to house people
Making money
Or they build buildings to make money
Off of housing people
It's true
Like a lot of things are true
I am foraging for a phone booth on the forest floor
That is not so soft
I look up

Guess there's something wrong with me
Guess I don't fit in
No one wants to touch it
No one knows where to begin
I've got more than one membership
To more than one club
And I owe my life
To the people that I love

He looks me up and down
Like he knows what time it is
Like he's got my number
Like he thinks it's his
He says,
Call me, Miss DiFranco,

Don't ask me why I'm crying
I'm not going to tell you what's wrong
I'm just gonna sit on your lap
For five dollars a song
I want you to pay me for my beauty
I think it's only right
'Cause I have been paying for it
All of my life

I'm gonna take the money I make
I'm gonna take the money I make
I'm gonna take the money I make
And I'm gonna go away...

I search your profile
For a translation
I study the conversation
Like a map
'Cause I know there is strength
In the differences between us
And I know there is comfort
Where we overlap

Come here
Stand in front of the light
Stand still
So I can see your silouette
I hope
You have got all night
'Cause I'm not done looking,
No, I'm not done looking yet

Each one of us