Tamarind - Anthony Joseph & The Spasm Band, Anthony Joseph, Meshell Ndegeocello

She

Was a black whip of woman

Had a look that the silver of razors

And blazed with lips that were

Raised up to fearsome mouth

She was fearless

Crossing the hard road in her high thighed denim

And the bus drives and the shop keepers

Stared down from their canteens to

Watch her stroll past

In the deep white heat of midday

Like some emissary of the sun that

Couldn’t be touched

Or even whistled after

Just the glimpse of the could

Sting, cramp and paralyse

Make men say

Shiiiit

And cuss inside their own mouths

Dark seed of her skin

Like tamarind

She was the kind of woman that made time

Stand

Still

But no one saw her grooving in the ghettos of her life

No one saw her

Drying her clothes on a radiator overnight

No one saw her

Making rags into fashion or

Wiping tears her daughter’s eyes

‘Your daddy loves you'

She says

He just can’t control his anger sometimes

No one saw her

Waking at 5 am

And leaving the high rise

To go to her cleaning job in the city

Or leaving on the bus stop

Long distance to her mother

No one saw the full spectrum of her mind

Her dreams, her education

The experiences that made her

Stroll like scissor cutting

Or the wit of her lips

That could leave marks in water

Everyone says she’s beautiful

And in the midday when the asphalt is summer soft

And the children are playing in the streets

She lets the dark seed

Of her glow

Like tamarind

(Merci à eDGe pour cettes paroles)