Shroud - Ani DiFranco

I had to leave the house of fashion

Go forth naked from its doors

Cuz women should be allies

Not competitors

And i had to leave the house of god

Cuz the cross repleased 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 privilege 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