Difranco Ani My I Q Lyrics

My I Q Lyrics

when I was four years old
they tried to test my I.Q.
they showed me a
picture
of 3 oranges and a pear
they said,
which one is
different?
it does not belong
they taught me different is wrong
but
when I was 13 years old
I woke up one morning
thighs covered in
blood
like a war
like a warning
that I live in a breakable takeable
body
an ever-increasingly valuable body
that a woman had come in the
night to replace me
deface me
see,
my body is borrowed
yeah, I got
it on loan
for the time in between my mom and some maggots
I don't need
anyone to hold me
I can hold my own
I got highways for
stretchmarks
see where I've grown
I sing sometimes
like my life is at
stake
'cause you're only as loud
as the noises you make
I'm learning
to laugh as hard
as I can listen
'cause silence
is violence
in
women and poor people
if more people were screaming then I could
relax
but a good brain ain't diddley
if you don't have the facts
we
live in a breakable takeable world
an ever available possible world
and
we can make music
like we can make do
genius is in a back
beat
backseat to nothing if you're dancing
especially something
stupid
like I.Q.
for every lie I unlearn
I learn something new
I
sing sometimes for the war that I fight
'cause every tool is a weapon
-
if you hold it right.