Highwomen

I was a Highwoman And a mother from my youth For my children I did what I had to do My family left Honduras when they killed the Sandinistas We followed a coyote through the dust of Mexico Every one of them except for me survived And I am still alive I was a healer I was gifted as a girl I laid hands upon the world Someone saw me sleeping naked in the noon sun I heard "witchcraft" in the whispers and I knew my time had come The bastards hung me at the Salem gallows hill But I am living still I was a freedom rider When we thought the South had won Virginia in the spring of '61 I sat down on the Greyhound that was bound for Mississippi My mother asked me if that ride was worth my life And when the shots rang out I never heard the sound But I am still around And I'll take that ride again And again And again And again And again I was a preacher My heart broke for all the world But teaching was unrighteous for a girl In the summer I was baptized in the mighty Colorado In the winter I heard the hounds and I knew I had been found And in my Savior's name, I laid my weapons down But I am still around We are The Highwomen Singing stories still untold We carry the sons you can only hold We are the daughters of the silent generations You sent our hearts to die alone in foreign nations It may return to us as tiny drops of rain But we will still remain And we'll come back again and again and again And again and again We'll come back again and again and again And again and again