Blood at the Root (ft. Glenn North)

from Pandemic by Trevor Smith

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lyrics

(Text by Glenn North)

i tried to love you america
but you can’t handle the truth
the blood drips from your leaves
because of the blood that’s at your root

you choose to ignore the rivers
the oceans of blood you have spilled
because your glutenous veins are filled
with the blood of widow makers
& orphan creators
continent molesters
who littered the atlantic with onyx corpses
& there has been no metamorphosis
no change
your thirst for blood remains
america, i have tried
but you are never satisfied
how many black boys have to die
how long will black mothers stay terrified
until their sons return home
how many are already gone
how many times must I wear my black suit

the blood drips from your leaves
because of the blood that’s at your root

I tried to love you america
from the very start
even when you said i was three fifths human
i gave you five fifths of my heart
in return you gave me terror
murder & lynching & rape
after 400 hundred blood-stained years
how much more am I supposed to take
from the first 20 kidnapped africans
who arrived in Jamestown in 1619
to our sister breonna taylor
there has been a constant stream
of blood
or what of the seven holes
in our brother jacob blake’s back
producing seven fountains of blood
should we toss a coin and make a wish after that

the number of police shootings
steadily multiplying
you label us as violent
but we are the ones that keep dying
the black body is a commodity
the untold wealth cheap labor builds
crime ain’t the only reason
that the prisons are filled
with black bodies
a black body was worth twenty-five hundred dollars
at the height of slavery
but it seems our worth has depreciated
in the 21st century

america, america, you hypocritical land
trapped in a bloody history
you refuse to understand
so you just keep sinking your teeth
into the strangest fruit

& the blood drips from your leaves
because of the blood that’s at your root

credits

from Pandemic, released February 8, 2021

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about

Trevor Smith Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City based composer and multi-instrumentalist. I teach at Base Academy of Music.

I don't know how to write in just one style or for just one audience, I only know how to be myself.

Hope you dig it. ... more

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