What would it be if I didn't do something for my mother?   i'm on it, you know what I'm saying?   yup, all the mothers, my mother, your mother   Right   check this out   lemme know   There's my mother pounding grain   Sun over her head, it won't rain   Blood in her veins, boiling again   she won't break, pride is her name   She made grits for breakfast   and convinced us we were rich   Sometimes dinner we'd have skip   she vowed to never ever let us miss   but we were poor   had next to nothing    We'd endured the habits of something   called injustice like incest is   you just rape is disgusting   And every morning it breaks dawn   she looks up and she breaks down   My pops left, he left town   wouldn't be so bad if he was around   But when he left, she weren't rest   He made promises he hardly kept   But she kept trying and he kept lying   She found out and she hardly slept   And so it was life in the east   Life in militia   Life in the streets   Concrete jungle   Harshest of men   The harshest of 'em could hardly pretend   It was incredible, the strength of this woman   Her prayers dominate the wind and guide it to heaven   Her spirit is as vivid as the highest moon   and I was blessed to have lived in her pious womb   But what could i say that could even near the space   that describes the grace of this woman's beautiful majestic ways   nothing   That's why whatever i write will pale in comparison   and fail in expression   Do you know that my mama lived through    trauma, hardship, conflict, pain, struggle in the war   and two of our sons go to school no more   Man, she really is the deepest depth   God only needs smile when you least expect   I can't repay her but at least i recognize my eyes   no home to her will which was rock stone   She reminds me of a little poem by cheri that i heard one morn'   that talked about a woman:      "There is a woman in Somalia   scraping for bones on the roadside.   There's a force stronger than nature   keeps her will alive (keeps her will alive)   This is how she's dying   Dying to surivie (dying to surivive)   Don't know what she's made of   I will learn to be like this   She cries (cries) to the heaven above   There's a storm in my heart   She lives a life she didn't choose   (commited to poverty, heart broken by the times)   and it hurts like brand new shoes   (hurts like brand new shoes, hurts like brand new shoes)   hurts like brand new shoes   (and it hurts like brand hew shoes, hurts like brand new shoes)   Yes   K'naan, my life is a movie (yeah)   Mix tape volume one.