From the recording Ancestors
This song has been close to my heart for a long time. Written in 2008, I recorded it with Rene Worst on stand up bass in 2011 when we were making “Bluest Blue”. I hoped it would be “seed corn” for my next collection but it has ripened patiently till now. In this potentially dark night of divisiveness, it is time for us all to recognize that we belong to each other. We are joined at the heart – and that’s the only way we’ll survive.
Lyrics
Family Ties (1998/2008)
You don’t look like me so we’re not sisters they all say
You’re too short, I’m too tall and your bones are too small – sorta birdlike
And anyway, you don’t look like me
And I don’t look like him; I guess that’s why they say
He’s too broad, he’s too brown, and his nose and his frown aren’t like our folks
Well, anyway, I don’t look like him.
But here we are, the oddest tribe god ever gathered:
A strange assortment of eyes and hair and skin
The given and chosen are dice that are rolled together.
They don’t look like me. Not relations, you might say
But our foolish and wise and our wholly surprising intentions
Entangle us, when we would look away.
Deeper than by blood, if they could only see
We are joined at the heart by our breath and our part in the story
In any way, in every way.
Here we are, the oddest tribe the goddess gathered
We share the burdens of each other’s sighs and songs.
And though I might wander alone, I am never lonely.