Nathan Cervantes - Prologue Lyrics

My mother was colonized by violence with the heart of a thief
Watching her brother in trial in silence, abandoning grief
Wearing creased Ben Davis jeans, her Cortez's balanced her thoughts
When she was being chased and sexually harassed by police

My masculinity was tested
She moved militant But complacency masked her depression
She said, "I covet the truth, beauty is unripe, and childhood cheats
I leave it behind with the games of youth"
So I painted myself an abandoned earth
I mourned from afar, and fed my vices first
I cried in Rome, hoping to uplift the curse
That I was birthed a fraudulent artist
Who subverted Murphy's Law since birth
But haunted, impatient, and flawed
When faced with temptations I questioned my worth
Merged fear with hatred, and it was ghosts that I saw

My mother was colonized by violence with the heart of a thief
Watching her brother in trial in silence, abandoning grief
Lost in the abyss of death and guilt, her anger grew in feats
Blaming herself, consumed by trauma and disbelief

I asked my mother at 12 if **** could speak
What would he say of our life of convalescence
Is prison a short-term compromise or a lesson?
Truthfully, I've colonized myself In the words of pain and resentment
These thoughts fill up the mighty void of sense
Pride where wit fails, steps up to my defense
At 18 I was desperate, searching the earth for my part
I asked, what share me and nature have in common with art
Is my creativity safe?
Safe from cult personalities and the rhetoric doom
Safe from political nihilists, like from the GOP
Who's consumed by their own conspiracy theories and entitlement

You see my mother was colonized by violence, with the rage of machines
Living through domestic violence, hugging herself to sleep
23 years later, I was subjected to grief
Robbed of my adolescence, suicide thoughts at 18

Masaccio, did the poison rip you apart?
Or did vengeance corrupt your contemporaries soul
I could give you my heart
I could write you a poem
I could, spare my grief til love depart
If you promise to give me a home
I pity this ruined house and the frames I've stolen
But I question Hesperian kingdom
I question these times of the modern apartheid we live in
I question this paranoia
It's all that I've had, in fact
I question if I'm morally fatigued
If my ambition has circumvented my greediness and well-being
But in the midst of this cultural trauma
I extend the scepter of a mortal king crown
King Imhotep, for the reverent mothers who keep a laurel crown
I let the pain, the tears, on a pyres of my youthful days
I lay in pro-club down and shed my beliefs
My thoughts in sleep
My guilt, my shame, to Thom Yorkes' Creep
Now, I'm content with being the son of a thief

Sincerely yours