Skin of a Drum - Saul Williams

And I can’t become my father when it’s all been said and done

His completions won’t complete me

I’ve divided me by one, I’m the answer to his riddle

I’m the caution of his wind

I’m the spoon wedged between tongue and teeth beneath his trembling grin

And I dare add my revision for I dare not suffer twice and I dare not reinvent

the past

And I dare not be the Christ and I welcome any sufferer

And I welcome any Saul

Sitting in this room, on wooden bench, waiting for Joi to call

And I suffer here alone, Lord

Perturbed by my every thought

How I’ve tried to strip them to the bone I’ve struggled and I’ve fought

Every jealous warped intention, smuggled, sewn into genes

Every hidden mongrel tendency exploiting me in me

Each time I put them under but still they wanna test me

I cry out through the thunder.

You storm right past me.

I search and I ponder.

I question and wonder… I roar and I thunder, please, let me in

I’ve been waiting here for what now seems the better of an hour

I’ve raised every crippled question from the dead and given power to the

absence of my sanity

The presence of a fear that lies in between forgotten dreams that pile up every

year

Up above the highest testaments, down below the wooden floor

There’s a gutted room, pitch black at noon, beneath a hidden door

Deep within, you’ll find the attributes of every sunken man

Who must bang his head against the dead each day he tries to stand

And he’s standing pressed against the very woman that he loves

Kissing eyes and lips, embracing hips, surrendering to her touch

And just at the very moment that he touches heart to heart

She pulls from his touch, cause it’s too much to mend what’s torn apart

Each time I put them under but still they wanna test me

I cry out through the thunder.

You storm right past me.

I search and I ponder

I question and wonder… I roar and I thunder, please, let me in

It’s so hard to be the man I would be if hatred and fear no longer appeared

I swear I’ve become the skin of a drum, the heart of a man, divided I stand