I was born with my hand in a fist And my eyes shut tight Any wonder that I cannot resist Punchin' blindly in a fight The first time I saw swans flyin' to the sun I wanted to be one Like every mother's son When I saw my life had begun I wanted to be someone Like my brother and my one and only father And like every mother's son I was raised within a cause With a purpose to fulfill I was taught to defend what was mine And instructed not to kill My small mortal eyes can see eternity In the clouds that dissolve and then regroup endlessly Like every mother's son When a man showed me how to use a gun I wished I'd never need one Like my brother and my one and only father And like every mother's son Everything in domesticity Assumes its role better than me I'm a displaced person whose culture let me down I raise my own daughters in a pornographic town Like every mother's son I've lost some and some I've won Now I'm waiting for a new dawn Like my brother and my one and only father And like every mother's son