Lyrics
My brother’s tongue is a gun
Expressing that the speaker's brother's words are powerful and impactful, like a weapon.
Every time I hold my lover’s hand
Linking the act of holding a lover's hand to a significant consequence related to the brother and his mother.
For my brother and his mother to see
Highlighting the visibility of the speaker's actions to the brother and his mother.
I choose war
Declaring a choice to engage in conflict or struggle.
I choose war
-Every time I hold my lover’s hand
Repeating the connection between holding the lover's hand and the brother's tongue being a gun.
My brother’s tongue is a gun
Reiterating the brother's tongue as a weapon and emphasizing the choice of war.
And I choose war
-I choose war
Affirming the persistent choice of war.
My brother’s mother prays to the God she was given, She numbs herself with gospel
Describing the brother's mother's reliance on religion and the father's silence in the face of a son's perceived loss.
His father never says a thing, he don’t know how to find the words How many mothers have declared their sons fallen? How many fathers mourn the loss of their boyhood And I chose this war
-Every time I hold my lover’s hand
Repeating the connection between holding the lover's hand and choosing war for the brother and his mother to witness.
For my brother and his mother to see
-I choose war
Reiterating the ongoing choice of war.
I choose war
-Every time I hold my lover’s hand
Repeating the themes of holding hands, the brother's tongue as a gun, and the persistent choice of war.
My brother’s tongue is a gun
-I choose war
-And I choose war
Emphasizing the continued commitment to war.
I’m taller than most of my brothers,
Reflecting on the speaker's stature compared to brothers, addressing societal expectations of manhood, and hinting at fluidity as a potential sin.
But still they tower over me
-The art of manhood is being policed by men who share my skin
-If fluidity is sin,
-I might as well be fiction
Suggesting a potential sense of being unreal or misunderstood.
Cuz I forgot the the choreography
Using metaphors to describe the speaker's physicality and emotions as conflicting and constrained.
My limbs are not supposed to move like water,
-Unless I’m a storm, or a waterfall
-But I’m a river,
-frozen over,
-boiling underneath
Expressing a hidden turmoil beneath the surface, leading to the choice of war.
And I choose war
-Every time I hold my lover’s hand For my brother and his mother to see I choose war
Repeating the connection between holding the lover's hand and choosing war for the brother and his mother to witness.
I choose war
-Every time I hold my lover’s hand My brother’s tongue is a gun
Emphasizing the brother's tongue as a gun and the ongoing choice of war.
I choose war
-And I choose war
Reiterating the commitment to war.
My brother fires shots at a mirror I shatter, he shatters
Depicting a destructive cycle where the brother's actions impact both the speaker and themselves, leading to self-hatred.
I bleed, we bleed
-They made us hate ourselves
-And now we’re masters of self-destruction
-Tell me brother
Questioning the brother's fear and discomfort, asking if it stems from the speaker's identity.
Are you afraid of me
-Or afraid of yourself
-Afraid of embracing the part of you that looks like me
-If I let go of my lover
Exploring the conflict between personal peace and societal expectations, with the choice of war prevailing.
I’m choosing your peace over mine If I let go of my lover
-I’m being othered by the othered And that don’t make no sense
Highlighting the absurdity of being marginalized for choosing peace over societal expectations.
So I’m choosing war
Repeatedly affirming the choice of war when holding the lover's hand and when faced with the brother's tongue as a gun.
Every time
-I hold my lovers hand
-For my brother and his mother to see I choose war,
-I choose war
-Every time I hold my lover’s hand My brother’s tongue is a gun
-I choose war
-And I choose war
Finalizing the commitment to the choice of war.
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