Took a village to raise a child Not much was transparent My after schools were spent with aunts, uncles and grandparents And cousins huddled over stove tops Three generations under one roof with juxtaposed thoughts of what was left behind And the grind for a better life But the definition of what was better was inconclusive Elusive Whatever it was, we just knew it wasn't where we were So we scattered ourselves over continents and found solace in faith but Often felt that was misplaced when it was shaken by tremors and pressures That were perceived as foreign to us Made our homes using hands with arthritic bones Mom shifted from graveyard to graveyard And Pops survived the last round of lay-offs but held his breath until the next time And confines of limitations interfering in a war between identity and a**imilation Conflicting concepts of preservation so We were measured against standards of beauty and intelligence that were not our own So the same freedoms aren't afforded by everyone And that means home is never really home We just accept what's around Us to survive and make do Much like animals in a zoo And we're the offspring Born captive and subordinates to masters So we use our music With choruses adapted like slave songs leading us to coordinates of pa**age Away from this The only environment we've ever known Which has grown to become claustrophobic And below the stoic mosaic And the façade of an all-tolerant god Exist as zoo babies