Alicia Keys - Elaine Brown (Interlude) Lyrics

Can I do one more really quick?
So he said blow black mother, black mother
He always announce the title black mother, this is rap
This is hip hop, this is all that, from the street

Poetry from the street
Black mother
I must confess that I still breathe
Though you are still not free
What could justify my crying start
Forgive my coward's heart
But blame me not the sheepish me
For I be sleeping in a deep, deep sleep
And I be hazed and dazed
And vipers fester in my hair
Black mother, I curse your drudging years
The rapes, heartaches, sweat and tears
But I swear I'll seize night's dark and gloom
A rose I'll wear to honor you
And when I fall
A rose in hand
You'll be free, and I a man
For a slave of natural death who dies
Can't balance out two dead flies
I'd rather be without the shame
A bullet lodged within my brain
Black mother