Mothers

Mothers

It wasn't anything she could tell you.
It wasn't anything she could tell herself.
It wasn't anything she could tell her mind to change it.
It wasn't anything she could have known.
It wasn't anything to do with not loving her own,
some would say it was her selfish ways,
her childish ways, some would say it was the truth,
that she was not alone to feel that
having that baby put a weight where her wings once were,
it was a load too heavy to carry.
Having that babe was like a leash around her neck.
Having that baby put the noose around her life.
She couldn't get used to always being in charge,
being a police in her own house, in her own backyard.
She didn't like the things it made her say and do,
she didn't like the way it changed her tone of voice.
You know, mothers they feel too much,
they worry too much,
they never know what it is that they do that's too much.
Once she thought she had the rest of the world to explore,
but no more, she's tied and bound to the breath of a new life:
having that baby put a weight where her wings once were,
it was a load too heavy to carry.
Having that babe was like a leash around her neck.
Having that baby put the noose around her life.
Having that baby built the fence that locked her in,
locked her in with love and obligation,
locked her in with heavy chains of responsibility.
It was loving that baby put the leash around her neck--
it was her conscience that put the noose around her life.
You look at your mama, you don't like what you see.
You look at yourself, you don't like who you be,
and you know you blame her: you think
that she made you into the way that you are today.
Think of her back then, and who she was.
Think of her back then and what she wanted to be--
and then you turn it around:
maybe it was you who made her into the way that she is today.....
maybe having that baby put a weight where her wings once were,
it was a load too heavy to carry.
Having that babe was like a leash around her neck.
Having that baby put the noose around her life.