"Wild Women" | Sunni Patterson

74,326 views ・ 2018-09-21

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Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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They wanted her piecemealed, papier-mâchéd,
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practically broken, limp-like and loveless,
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a litany of exaggeration.
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They wanted her low.
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And high.
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Flat and wide.
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Filled with all of their empty.
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They wanted her to be more like them.
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Not knowing her conception was immaculate.
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That she was birthed in sandalwood-scented river water,
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sweet sapphire honey-touched tongue,
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she was too much of a mouthful for the greedy.
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Just a small amount of her was more than they could stand.
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Oh, they wanted her bland.
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And barren.
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Unspirited, un-African, uncultured,
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under siege in the streets.
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They wanted her face down, ass up, hands cuffed and ankles strapped.
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They wanted her knowing she could never want them back.
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Oh, they wanted her holy,
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baptized in her divine,
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they wanted her secrets,
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pearls to swine.
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They wanted to unravel the mystery of her design.
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Fascinated by glory, hypnotized by her kind.
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Oh, they wanted her complete.
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They wanted her whole,
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though they came fractioned, half-hearted, half-soul,
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with no regards and no knowledge as to who she really was.
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Oh, but if they knew.
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If they knew her,
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praise songs would rain from the clouds of their eyes,
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clearing the vision, bathing the heart.
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They would bow every time they saw her.
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Be their best selves when she was around.
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If they knew her,
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knew she was the glue to their revolution,
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the life flow of blood through their veins.
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If they knew her,
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she would know,
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she would feel
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that her body is more than battlefield.
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More than bone break and bleeding bigotry.
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More than bridge over your troubled conscience.
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More than used up, walked on, driven through, shot up.
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More than your "Selma, Lord, Selma" Edmund Pettus.
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More than your killer Katrina Danziger.
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More than your bust them out of Baltimore "Highway to Nowhere."
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If they knew her,
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she would know.
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(Singing)
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Wild women,
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wild women, they walk with buffalo.
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Have lightning on their tongues,
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fly whisks as weapons.
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Wild women, they walk with machetes.
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With wisdom, with grace, with ease.
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Wild women have hurricanes in their bellies,
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releasing a flood of a lesson.
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Oh, wild women, they fly free.
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Just watch their ways, how they rip and shred.
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Oh, who can understand her,
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this winding Niger river of a woman
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one who is unafraid to tear away
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only to roam and then become the wind.
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She who speaks in gusts and cyclones
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blasting us back to high ground, high consciousness,
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she turns and so does the world.
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Feel her spinning,
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spanning several lifetimes.
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Hear her speaking, sparking alarm.
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See her dancing, summoning the dead,
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resurrecting new life.
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Heaven hears her knocking on the door,
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safely transporting the ones who call for her assistance.
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Wild women, they open portals to new worlds,
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new speech, new dreams.
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Oh, dearly beloveds,
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so dearly departed from the ways of the guardian,
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beware.
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For wild women are not to be tamed.
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Only admired.
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Just let her in and witness her set your days ablaze.
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(Cheers) (Applause)
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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