Doors to my Mind
(Frankie Armstrong)
I've been told since a kid in my cradle
To be ladylike sweet and demure
To rely on my elders and betters
And I'd grow up loved and secure
As a kid I was sent to a convent
And it wasn't that they were unkind
But they told me that school was to teach me to learn
Then they locked up the doors to my mind
I felt trapped like a bird in a cold iron cage
So l ran to the rocks and the sea
Flew away from that cage of a convent
But the nuns send the cops after me
They followed, they cornered, they caught me
Had me up at a Juvenile Court
The Magistrate said "You're an ungrateful girl
It's approved school that deals with your sort"
Now I'd never known what you'd call a real home
Even less had I known a real bloke
So that cooking and sewing and home care Seemed like a cruel joke
I couldn't take all their preaching
So up to the city I fled
When you're feeling as lonely as I did
Your price is a meal or a bed
And though men were the custom I dealt with
It was me that they clapped in the pen
The man at the bench put the blame square on me
For the laws are made by and for men
When a woman comes out of a prison
Life's hard as hell outside
But there's ways to forget all the hurt and the rage
And to climb from the depths to a high
But the high it was never for ever
And always the pain burned back through
When you're way past despair, past caring to care
There seems nothing that no one can do
It was stomach pumps, shrinks, social workers
Most of them sold on square lies
Never questioning all of the rules they obey
Never asking the hows and the whys
One question I'd always been asking
Was "Why should this happen to me?"
There my sisters helped me feel how we all get this deal That's
what they don't want us to see
For the first time I've pride and respect now
And some power to change things myself
So we need not be outcasts, my sisters.
If we stand up and fight for ourselves
@feminist @jail @education
Written and recorded by Frankie Armstrong
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