Reflection Eternal - Four Women lyrics

Yea, so we got this tune
Called "Four Women" right
Originally, it was by Nina Simone
She said it was inspired by, you know
Down south in the south
They used to call her Mother Auntie
She said No Mrs just Auntie
She said if anybody ever called her Auntie
She'd burn the whole goddamn place down
I'm over past that
Coming into the new millennium
We can't forget our elders

I got off the 2 train in Brooklyn
On my way to a session
Said let me help this woman up the
Stairs before I get to steppin'
We got in a conversation she said she a 107
Just her presence was a blessing and
Her essence was a lesson
She had her head wrapped


And long dreads that peeked out the back
Like antenna to help her get a
Sense of where she was at, imagine that
Livin' a century
The strenght of her memories
Felt like an angel had been sent to me
She lived from nigga to colored
To negro to black
To afro then african-American and
Right back to nigga
You figure she'd be bitter in the twilight
But she alright
Cuz she done seen the circle of life yo
Her skin was black like it
Was packed with melanin
Back in the days of slaves
She packin' like Harriet Tubman
Her arms are long and she moves like a song
Feet with corns, hand with callouses
But her heart is warm and her hair is wooly
And it attract a lot of energy even negative
She gotta dead that the head
Wrap is her remedy
Her back is strong and she
Far from a vagabond
This is the back of the masters'
Whip used to crack upon
Strong enough to take all the pain
That's been
Inflicted again and again and again
And again and flipped it to the love for her
Children nothing else matters
What do they call her? They
Call her aunt Sara

Woman singing in the background

I know a girl with a name
As beautiful as the rain
Her face is the same but
She suffers an unusual pain
Seems she only deals with losers
Who be usin' them games
Chasin' the real brothers away like
She confused in the brain
She tried to get it where she fit in
On that American Dream mission paid tuition
For the receipt to find out her
History was missing and started flippin
Seeing the world through very different eyes
People askin' her what she'll do when
It comes time to choose sides
Yo, her skin is yellow
It's like her face is blond word is bond
And her hair is long and
Straight just like sleeping beauty
See, she truly feels like she
Belong in 2 worlds
And that she can't relate to other girls
Her father was rich and white
Still livin' with his wife
But he forced himself on her
Mother late one night
They call it rape that's right
And now she take flight
Through life with hate and
Spite inside her mind
That keep her up to the break
Of light a lot of times
(I gotta find myself)
She had to remind herself
They called her Safronia the unwanted seed
Blood still blue in her vein and
Still red when she bleeds
(Don't, don't, don't hurt me again)

Teenage lovers sit on the stoops up in Harlem
Holdin' hands under the Apollo
Marquis dreamin of stardom
Since they was born the streets
Is watchin' and schemin' and now it got them
Generations facin' deseases
That don't kill you they just got problems
And complications that get you first
Yo, it's getting worse
When children hide the fact
That they pregnant
Cuz they scared of giving birth
How will I feed this baby?
How will I survive, how will this baby shine?
Daddy dead from crack in '85
Mommy dead from AIDS in '89
At 14 the baby hit the same
Streets they became her master
The children of the enslaved
They grow a little faster
They bodies become adult
While they keepin' the thoughts of
A child her arrival
Into womanhood was heemed up by her survival
Now she 25, barely grown out her own
Doin' whatever it takes strippin'
Workin' out on the block
Up on the phone, talkin' about
(my skin is tan like the front of your hand)
(And my hair)
(Well my hair's alright whatever way
I want to fix it it's alright it's fine)
(But my hips
These sweet hips of mine invite you daddy)
(And when I fix my lips
My mouth is like wine)
(Take a sip don't be shy
Tonight I wanna be your lady)
(I ain't too good for your Mercedes
But first you got to pay me)
(You better quit with all the question
Sugar who's little girl am I)
(Why I'm yours if you got
Enough money to buy)
(You better stop with the compliments
We running out of time)
(You wanna talk whatever we could
Do that it's your dime)
(From Harlem's from where I came
Don't worry about my name)
(Up on one-two-five they call me sweet thang)

A daughter come up in Georgia
Ripe and ready to plant seeds
Left the plantation when she saw a
Sign even thought she can't read
It came from God and when life get
Hard she always speak to him
She'd rather kill her babies than let
The master get to 'em
She on the run up north
To get across that Mason-Dixon
In church she learned how to
Be patient and keep wishin'
The promise of eternal life after death
For those that God bless
She swears the next baby she'll have
Will breathe a free breath
And get milk from a free breast
And love beeing alive
Otherwise they'll have to give up
Being themselves to survive
Being maids, cleaning ladies
Maybe teachers or college graduates, nurses
Housewives, prostitutes, and drug addicts
Some will grow to be old women
Some will die before they born
They'll be mothers
And lovers who inspire and make songs
(But me
My skin is brown and my manner is tough)
(Like the love I give my
Babies when the rainbow's enuff)
(I'll kill the first muthafucka
That mess with me, i never bluff)
(I ain't got time to lie
My life has been much too rough)
(Still running with barefeet
I ain't got nothin' but my soul)
(Freedom is the ultimate goal
Life and death is small on the whole
In many ways, I'm awfully bitter these days
'cuz the only parents God gave me
They were slaves, And it crippled me
I got the destiny of a casualty)
(But, I live through my babies
And I change my reality)
(Maybe one day I'll ride back
To Georgia on a train)
(Folks 'round there call me Peaches
I guess that's my name)