Daughter
Sam LaRoche
Watch: New Singing Lesson Videos Can Make Anyone A Great Singer
To my daughter For all the things I should teach It will be to count Spoonful VS cups VS teaspoons The difference in tape measure stretched And secured around waist Versus the Rigidness of a ruler And that which she will be expected to bend to Teach her that she is Different than her brother He will never be sized up before leaving the house that way she will be His freedom unabashed Sings sweet like cicadas and opportunity Chest front and bare His exposure applauded And Hers covered How she may count their differences at night As she lay in bed with the dreams she has been assigned to She should know The measurement of a woman is to her breast size Is to her waist to hip ratio The length of time in which she speaks and the amount of attention she attracts Teach her Count days Count how many days of bleeding The days thereafter The days between your bleeding and ovulating The amount of children she can conceive, bare and keep will always be hers And hers alone But not always her decision If her body doesn't hold that baby I tell her keep that to yourself Bleed your baby in silence Piece by piece by day by week Until she is empty Tell no one For if she does, they will ask how far along? Determining the length of time She can mourn from conception to mis to failure to broken And she will count, days between tears and the days none were shed... Teach her arithmetic Count people Late night in subway trains as they pull into the station Remember license plates of the cars Remember phone numbers and streets and patterns Tell everyone where you're going at all times Because the world was never meant to be safe for girls So you must be accountable for yourself in the way the boys will never be held to Remember where you are Compass the North Star back home Stay as safe as you can But even then that isn't enough Count drinks 1, 2... keep the drink in your hand at the bar At the party At the friends house At The boys house At the boyfriends house Teach her to count steps in ladders Like caged birds perched by a windowsill Do not mistaken that glass ceiling for open skies Teach her not to reach or hold her hand out But instead punch and grab, claw and tear Get dirt under your fingernails Bring down the heavens When you are told to stop at the 5th floor Maybe I teach her all the ways She shouldn't be like myself Teach her not to count Herself backwards That scales are for Libras and Egyptian Gods That society has been incapable of loving daughters The way that the moon loves the sun, they won't let them shine But you darling stretch your arms and glisten Like dusk on the bank of the river As the mourning doves sing to the onset of evening I will tell her Never count yourself in teaspoons Or pinches Or dashes But in mouthfuls Count yourself in decibels Never measure yourself against other girls But earthquakes And the distance from who you were to who you are now Daughter Unfold yourself from the corner From the knees Take up space Take up oxygen Occupy the room in your silence And all that you have to say Compete with condensation Leave residue like Chapstick staining The mouth of a cigar or microphone Exhale into the ocean Or swallow it if it pleases you Count stars 1 to 1 billion and place yourself next to the moon Count until it drifts you off to sleep and wakes in your dreams I will Teach her to break bricks with fists And bullies with words Stringing together syllables like a sailors knot Tongue tying ambitions against her Daughter you have dawned on a new era You have bottled potential rattling in the linage of your bones For all those before you that were kept at bay And forced to watch the ocean tide swell in and out by the shore Instead of becoming a ripple and wave You my love can be ocean as you want Be mountain and horizon Save yourself from the tower, walk through the fire Tame the dragon Do not count minutes of your life away Waiting on somebody's else clock To give you permission Deliver yourself before anyone else does This world was never meant to be safe for girls so I will hand up sword and shield I will cover you for as long as I can but one day I will not be here Daughter, I will teach you to love yourself And to count ways that you are thankful for all that is you Count ways in which your are fed In prayer In meditation In laughter and kindness Hum with every bite Thanks your body for holding you up Thank hips Thank waist Thank ugly pinky toe Curves and not curves Stretch marks and scars All the beauty earned from living Dry skin and all that hair inherited that will dull many a razor blades And all that is right which at times may feel wrong Look in the mirror Count ways in which you are thankful For body For strength For vocal chords Be loud Be thunder Be rain cloud or rainbow Be tree blossoming from my roots Daughter I will always hold you up You are beauty and beautiful And I thank my body for being the vessel That harbored you Now I let you set sail Daughter, I will teach you to count ways that you are thankful for your body For breath and all that is you And if I should ever find you starring Into your reflection looking astray I will come in, stand and count with you
Watch: New Singing Lesson Videos Can Make Anyone A Great Singer
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"Daughter Lyrics." Lyrics.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.lyrics.com/lyric-lf/5925565/Sam+LaRoche/Daughter>.
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