APED: "follow the gourd"
Sometimes there's one who wants to go back.
Sometimes there's two. Men. Women. Boys. Girls.
You quiet them sometimes. You have that knack.
But you know all too well: not each seed makes a pearl.
This one won't listen. The way of the world.
God would not give you too heavy a load.
Follow the gourd. Remember the girl
forced by her brothers to turn from the road.
The tremors still plague you. They'll go. They'll come back.
Arms and legs locked, with your head all awhirl,
dead yet awake. Ever since your skull cracked
from the weight that was thrown -- oh, not at you, girl,
but it hit all the same. And that's a slave's world.
Sent back to the field, even as the blood flowed.
Follow the gourd. Go on, for the girl
forced by her brothers to turn from the road.
Harriet, know: he'll be put on the rack.
He knows where you've been. What plans were unfurled.
Men, paderollers, will be on your track.
You went underground to forge a free world.
The gun that you stole, with its handle of pearl,
is there, in your hand. The metal is cold.
Follow the gourd. Fight hard, for the girl
forced by her brothers to turn from the road.
This coward would run. You'll suffer no churl.
Pay him his coin. He deserves what he's owed.
Follow the gourd. For you were the girl
forced by her brothers to turn from the road.
Sometimes there's two. Men. Women. Boys. Girls.
You quiet them sometimes. You have that knack.
But you know all too well: not each seed makes a pearl.
This one won't listen. The way of the world.
God would not give you too heavy a load.
Follow the gourd. Remember the girl
forced by her brothers to turn from the road.
The tremors still plague you. They'll go. They'll come back.
Arms and legs locked, with your head all awhirl,
dead yet awake. Ever since your skull cracked
from the weight that was thrown -- oh, not at you, girl,
but it hit all the same. And that's a slave's world.
Sent back to the field, even as the blood flowed.
Follow the gourd. Go on, for the girl
forced by her brothers to turn from the road.
Harriet, know: he'll be put on the rack.
He knows where you've been. What plans were unfurled.
Men, paderollers, will be on your track.
You went underground to forge a free world.
The gun that you stole, with its handle of pearl,
is there, in your hand. The metal is cold.
Follow the gourd. Fight hard, for the girl
forced by her brothers to turn from the road.
This coward would run. You'll suffer no churl.
Pay him his coin. He deserves what he's owed.
Follow the gourd. For you were the girl
forced by her brothers to turn from the road.