Secular Penitente

There is no back East There's no out west For the land that I stand on Is where my ancestors rest My grandpa a miner The shadows of Ludlow From teenage to black lung A digger of coal My grandma a mother Eleven under her care Would wash his Loñas He only had two pair He'd leave in the mornings Metal lunchbox that stacks Return in the evenings Completely covered in ash I Navigate the Modern world With an ancient map of pain A secular penitente coming home Singing in the rain When they had my mother They were already grey They moved to Denver When the jobs moved away Still they gave us their stories And they gave us wings They taught us to feel With the breath that we sing So my future ancestors This bequest to you We are not canaries in a cage Their spirit led us through I Navigate the Modern world With an ancient map of pain A secular penitente coming home Singing in the rain So I flip the scope from me To our larger world The future of humankind Is being Unfurled Didn't cross no borders The borders crossed us Guadalupe Hidalgo Broken treaty unjust So please don't tell us To go back home For these peaks and these rivers They Weave our genome So man with the red hat Get it straight They want to divide and conquer us They don't want us to relate So look in my eyes The bloodshot veins And let's share a breath In our mother's names I Navigate the Modern world With an ancient map of pain A secular penitente coming home Singing in the rain I Navigate the Modern world With an ancient map of pain A secular penitente coming home Singing in the rain