The Slant Songtext
von Ani DiFranco

The slant
A building settling
Around me my
Figure female
Framed crookedly
In the threshold
Of the room
Door scraping floor
Boards with every opening
Carving a rough history
Of bedroom scenes
The plot
Hard to follow
The text Obscured
In the folds of sheets slowly
Gathering the stains of seasons
Spent lying there
Red and brown
Like leaves fallen
The colors
Of an eternal cycle
Fading with the wash cycle
And the rinse cycle
Again an un-familiar smell
Like my name misspelled
Or misspoken
A cycle broken


The sound
Of them strong stalking
Talking about their prey
Like the way
Hammer meets nail
Pounding
They say
Pounding
Out the rhythms
Of attraction
Like a woman
Was a drum
Like a body
Was a weapon
Like there was something more they wanted
Than the journey
Like it was owed to them
Steel toed they walk
And i′m wondering why
This fear of men?
Maybe it's cuz i′m hungry
And like a baby
I'm dependent on them
To feed me
I am a work in progress
Dressed in the fabric
Of a world unfolding
Offering me intricate
Patterns of questions
Rhythms that never come clean
And strengths
That you still
Haven't seen