G                            Em
1. Here’s the coat hook for your jacket    
               C                             D      
and the place you kept your favorite shoes.      
                   G                       Em
Here’s the chair you liked to sit on.  
                  C                                      D
That’s the chair that held me when I heard the news.    
C                        G                                                    C             D
Every time you went out, I feared someone would take you down.  
C          D         Em.                      C     D         G
Now I can’t go on.                   I really can’t go on.   

 

              G
Chorus: Here is your bowl, I lift the ladle,
G                   Em                        C  D
sit down right here, come to the table.
             G  Em                        G  Em      C                         D
It’s like a war.      There is no winner.     In these lynching times,
            C                    D                        G
I want every mother’s child home for dinner.

 

                  G                 C       G                  C                    G
Stand out: You can go either way. You can hide it deep inside you,
         C                      D
let it burn you to the core,

                   C                      G                     C              D
Or you can open yourself wider than you ever have before.

 

              G                               Em                       C                                 D

2. I am chopping, chopping onions. Chopping finer than they need to be.
          G                  Em               G                C        D
I am stopping, I am turning, I am witnessing eternity.
C                        G                                              C       D
I have heard the worst news that a mother can ever know.
C                   D                   G   C          C      D           G
Can you still feel I love you so?       I really love you so.             

 

Chorus

 

                     Em                                   C                     D
Bridge: I am staring at the water that runs down this drain.
Em                                      C             D
... How many mothers will carry this pain.
                                 Em                       C                D
I don’t know what to do         when I’m feeling this rage.
                 C                                   D
How can official hands just turn a page. 

 

               G                         Em                     C                         D
3. I am breathing, simply breathing, and I cannot see what lies ahead.
  G                      Em                           C                        D
Elders line my kitchen and they’re offering their holy bread.
         C                                          G                    C  G
We spread this tablecloth with a heart ready to listen.
                 C                                 G                    C  G
There’s a place for everyone to come into my kitchen.

 

                G                   C      G
Standout: You can go either way.
C                        G                 C                  D
You can shrink yourself to ashes like a cinder in the night
C                           G                 C                      D
or use all the pain that’s burning and turn yourself to light. 

 

Chorus