Bayou Blood

Twelve years old in Mobile, track dust on my jeans

Slangin' cokes under the bleachers, learnin' what survival means

They gave me a name at birth, but I always knew my own

A different kind of spirit in my adolescent bones

Graduated to a gas station kitchen off the Ten

Fryin' chicken, takin' orders, born all over again

In the heat and in the grease, I started sheddin' my old skin

Wonderin' if the woman that I felt would ever win.

Got that bayou blood, that muddy water in my veins

A deep-south legacy of hurricanes and sugarcane rains

Got a loud mouth from my momma, a redhead just like me

I fought the world and then some for the woman you now see

Yeah, this body holds a story that they try to legislate

But I'm the queen of my own parish in this broken, hateful state.

Became a single momma, raised my babies fierce and strong

Proved my worth in every battle where they told me I belonged

In the shadows, in the margins, but I sang a different song

Built a home inside my body, where my spirit could belong

They don't like my leftist politics, my refusal to be shamed

For the curves I own, the life I've lived, the identity I've claimed

But I learned a thing or two back when I was in the game

You don't flinch when they get angry, you just call them by their name.

Got that bayou blood, that muddy water in my veins

A deep-south legacy of hurricanes and sugarcane rains

Got a loud mouth from my momma, a redhead just like me

I fought the world and then some for the woman you now see

Yeah, this body holds a story that they try to legislate

But I'm the queen of my own parish in this broken, hateful state.

See, a Cajun woman's magic ain't some gris-gris or a charm

It's knowin' how to love you and how to break your goddamn arm

We can stir a proper roux and we can start a revolution

We find our grace in flavor, find our faith in absolution

That we give ourselves, 'cause no one else is gonna save our soul

So we learn to dance with demons, learn to lose and take control.

So bless your heart and say your prayers, but you best stay out our way

'Cause we keep our guns loaded, ready to party or to fight, cher.