God’s A-Working, Man

(Two, three)
Captives cry freedom
From a crucifix of sheds
The state calls Corrections
Between Lock 17 and Toadvine

Where the bank and the landlords
Stole my great-granddaddy's days
Where the Lord taught him to read
Scripture by the coal-oil light

Joy Harjo reads
Between the Tobesofkee and her folks' mounds
Elders call through death
An eagle, a song, her mama's old biscuit pan

A boy murmurs in the mic
Has a briar patch saved her life?
Like, when his mama got strung out
And his grandparents took him by his little shaking hands

Old broken things to fix
A riled-up, wild-eyed band
Piles of winding stories
A sanctified, beaten-down land

Longer I've been living
It seems like the less I understand
Every morning I hit my knees
And thank God, "My God's a-working, man"
I thank God that He came down here
To get to working, man

Sweet sad old Gulf
Saltwater licking at my wounds
I drank deep of my failure
Heard my mama curse the day I was born

The sun pierced my lids
Great-Granddaddy touched this water
The only time he left Alabama
Mimi and Granddaddy singing and waving from the shore

Old broken things to fix
A riled-up, wild-eyed band
Piles of winding stories
A sanctified, beaten-down land

The longer I've been living
It seems like the less I understand
But every morning I hit my knees
And thank God, "My God's a-working, man"
I thank God that they came down here
To get to working, man

I searched Talladega's ruined mills
For the spirit of the strike
Its soft hills for the Red Stick war-songs
Amistad blazed on the Ritz Theater marquee

Dark air, college kids, town elders
Blue light, flashing blades, broken chains
Sengpe calls to the ancestors
Through the ancient speakers and the dim screen

Old broken things to fix
A riled-up, wild-eyed band
Piles of winding stories
A sanctified, beaten-down land

The longer I've been living
It seems like the less I understand
But every morning I hit my knees
And thank God, "My God's a-working, man"
I thank God that they came down here
To get to working, man
I wanna thank the Lord

In the coal-dusted holler
Of her barefoot starvation youth
Some church-shadowed stones
Cried out my grandmama's name

A lady fixing flowers
Eyes flashing at me that we're kin
She weaves lives through the grave-rows
old-time falling like rain

Old broken things to fix
A riled-up, wild-eyed band
Piles of winding stories
A sanctified, beaten-down land

The longer I've been living
It seems like the less I understand
But every morning I hit my knees
And thank God, "My God's a-working, man"
I thank God that they came down here
To get to working, man

I wanna thank You the Lord
Yes, I wanna thank You

I squatted at his feet
Did he preach to the union, black and white
Before they shut down the Jasper streets
Corona mine?

Clouds spread across the land
Led me down to the Lock 17 Dam
The Black Warrior sang its song
An eagle opened up like a black-bound book in the sky

Old broken things to fix
A riled-up, wild-eyed band
Piles of winding stories
A sanctified, beaten-down land

The longer I've been living
It seems like the less I understand
Every morning I hit my knees
And thank God, "My God's a-working, man"
I thank God that they came down here
To get to working, man

I wanna thank You the Lord
Yes, I wanna thank You

Did they tell you?
That He could frame out a house?
Did they tell you?
That He could clean a mess of fish?
Did they tell you?
He had love for the working girls?
Did they tell you?
He told the rich man to go and cut a switch?

Oooh
Tell you? (Tell you)
Did they tell you? (Tell you)
Oh, did they tell you? (Tell you)

Ooh you know something
That I want you to talk about
(Tell you)
Did they tell you? (Tell you)
Did, did, did they tell you? (Tell you)
Did-did, did
Oh did they tell you?