Ani Difranco - Amendment

Wouldn't it be nice if

We had an amendment

To give civil rights to

Women

To once and for all just

Really lay it down from

The point of view of women

I know what you're thinking

That's just redundant

Chicks got it good now

They can almost be president

But is worker against worker

Time and time again

Cause the rich use certain issues as a tool

When I say we need the E.R.A ain't cause I'm a fool

It's cause without it nobody can get away

With anything cruel

And you don't need to go far like

Just over to Canada

To feel the height and sense of

Live and let live

What is it about Americans

Like so many pit-bulls

Trained to attack them

To never give

We gotta put down abortion

Put it down in the books for good

As central to the civil rights

Of women

Make diversity legal

Make it finally understood

Through the civil rights of women

And if you don't like abortion

Don't have an abortion

And teach your children

How they can avoid them

But don't treat all women

Like they are your children

Compassion has many faces

Many names

And if men can kill and be decorated

Instead of blamed

Then a woman called upon to mother

Can choose to refrain

And contrary to eons

Of old time religion

Your body is your only

True dominion

Nature is not here to serve you

Or at any cause to preserve you

That's just some preacher man's

Old time opinion

Life is sacred

Life is also profane

A woman's life

It must be hers to name

Let out an amendment

Put this brutal game to rest

Trust, women will still take you

To their breast

Trust, women will always

Do their best

Trust, our differences make us stronger

Not less

In this amendment shall be

Family structure shall be free

We'll have the right to civil our unions

With equal rights and

Equal protection

Intolerance finally

Ruined

And then there's the kids rights

They'll naturally be on board

The funnel through which

Women's lives are poured

Our family is so big

And we're all so very small

Let a web of relationship

Be laid over it all

Over the strutter of power piled up to the sky

Over the illusion of autonomy on which it relies

Over any absolute that nature does not supply

And the birthing woman shall regain her place

In a circle of women, in a sacred space

Turn off the machines, put away the knifes

This amendment shall deliver from bondage midwiv