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Self Evident
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Ani Difranco
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1
(inspired by the wtc disaster)
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Yes,
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Us people are just poems
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We're 90% metaphor
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With a leanness of meaning
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Approaching hyper-distillation
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And once upon a time
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We were moonshine
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Rushing down the throat of a giraffe
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Yes, rushing down the long hallway
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Despite what the P. A. Announcement says
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Yes, rushing down the long stairs
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With the whiskey of eternity
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Fermented and distilled
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To eighteen minutes
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Burning down our throats
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Down the hall
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Down the stairs
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In a building so tall
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That it will always be there
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Yes, it's part of a pair
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There on the bow of Noah's ark
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The most prestigious couple
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Just kickin back parked
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Against a perfectly blue sky
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On a morning beatific
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In it's Indian summer breeze
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On the day that America
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Fell to it's knees
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After strutting around for a century
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Without saying thank you
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Or please
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And the shock was subsonic
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And the smoke was deafening
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Between the setup and the punch line
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Cuz we were all on time for work that day
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We all boarded that plane for to fly
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And then while the fires were raging
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We all climbed up on the windowsill
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And then we all held hands
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And jumped into the sky
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And every borough looked up when it heard the first blast
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And then every dumb action movie was summarily surpassed
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And the exodus uptown by foot and motorcar
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Looked more like war than anything I've seen so far
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So far
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So far
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So fierce and ingenious
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A poetic specter so far gone
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That every jackass newscaster was struck dumb and stumbling
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Over 'oh my god' and 'this is unbelievable' and on and on
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And I'll tell you what, while we're at it
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You can keep the pentagon
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Keep the propaganda
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Keep each and every tv
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That's been trying to convince me
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To participate
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In some prep school punk's plan to perpetuate retribution
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Perpetuate retribution
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Even as the blue toxic smoke of our lesson in retribution
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Is still hanging in the air
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And there's ash on our shoes
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And there's ash in our hair
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And there's a fine silt on every mantle
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From hell's kitchen to Brooklyn
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And the streets are full of stories
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Sudden twists and near misses
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And soon every open bar is crammed to the rafters
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With tales of narrowly averted disasters
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And the whiskey is flowin
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Like never before
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As all over the country
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Folks just shake their heads
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And pour
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So here's a toast to all the folks who live in Palestine
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Afghanistan
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Iraq
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El Salvador
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Here's a toast to the folks living on the pine ridge reservation
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Under the stone cold gaze of mt. Rushmore
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Here's a toast to all those nurses and doctors
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Who daily provide women with a choice
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Who stand down a threat the size of Oklahoma City
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Just to listen to a young woman's voice
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Here's a toast to all the folks on death row right now
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Awaiting the executioner's guillotine
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Who are shackled there with dread and can only escape into their heads
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To find peace in the form of a dream
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Cuz take away our playstations
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And we are a third world nation
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Under the thumb of some blue blood royal son
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Who stole the oval office and that phony election
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I mean
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It don't take a weatherman
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To look around and see the weather
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Jeb said he'd deliver Florida, folks
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And boy did he ever
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And we hold these truths to be self evident:
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#1 George W. Bush is not president
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#2 America is not a true democracy
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#3 the media is not fooling me
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Cuz I am a poem heeding hyper-distillation
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I've got no room for a lie so verbose
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I'm looking out over my whole human family
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And I'm raising my glass in a toast
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Here's to our last drink of fossil fuels
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Let us vow to get off of this sauce
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Shoo away the swarms of commuter planes
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And find that train ticket we lost
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Cuz once upon a time the line followed the river
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And peeked into all the backyards
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And the laundry was waving
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The graffiti was teasing us
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From brick walls and bridges
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We were rolling over ridges
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Through valleys
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Under stars
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I dream of touring like Duke Ellington
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In my own railroad car
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I dream of waiting on the tall blonde wooden benches
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In a grand station aglow with grace
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And then standing out on the platform
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And feeling the air on my face
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Give back the night it's distant whistle
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Give the darkness back it's soul
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Give the big oil companies the finger finally
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And relearn how to rock--roll
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Yes, the lessons are all around us and a change is waiting there
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So it's time to pick through the rubble, clean the streets
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And clear the air
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Get our government to pull it's big dick out of the sand
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Of someone else's desert
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Put it back in it's pants
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And quit the hypocritical chants of
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Freedom forever
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Cuz when one lone phone rang
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In two thousand and one
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At ten after nine
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On nine one one
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Which is the number we all called
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When that lone phone rang right off the wall
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Right off our desk and down the long hall
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Down the long stairs
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In a building so tall
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That the whole world turned
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Just to watch it fall
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And while we're at it
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Remember the first time around?
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The bomb?
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The Ryder truck?
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The parking garage?
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The princess that didn't even feel the pea?
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Remember joking around in our apartment on avenue D?
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Can you imagine how many paper coffee cups would have to change their design
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Following a fantastical reversal of the New York skyline?!
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It was a joke, of course
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It was a joke
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At the time
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And that was just a few years ago
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So let the record show
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That the fbi was all over that case
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That the plot was obvious and in everybody's face
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And scoping that scene
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Religiously
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The cia
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Or is it kgb?
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Committing countless crimes against humanity
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With this kind of eventuality
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As it's excuse
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For abuse after expensive abuse
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And it didn't have a clue
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Look, another window to see through
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Way up here
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On the 104th floor
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Look
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Another key
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Another door
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10% literal
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90% metaphor
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3000 some poems disguised as people
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On an almost too perfect day
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Must be more than poems
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In some asshole's passion play
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So now it's your job
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And it's my job
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To make it that way
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To make sure they didn't die in vain
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Sshhhhhh....
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Baby listen
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Hear the train?
Self Evident (live)
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