Doors to my Mind

(Frankie Armstrong)



I've been told since a kid in my cradle

To be ladylike sweet and demure

To rely on my elders and betters

And I'd grow up loved and secure



As a kid I was sent to a convent

And it wasn't that they were unkind

But they told me that school was to teach me to learn

Then they locked up the doors to my mind



I felt trapped like a bird in a cold iron cage

So l ran to the rocks and the sea

Flew away from that cage of a convent

But the nuns send the cops after me



They followed, they cornered, they caught me

Had me up at a Juvenile Court

The Magistrate said "You're an ungrateful girl

It's approved school that deals with your sort"



Now I'd never known what you'd call a real home

Even less had I known a real bloke

So that cooking and sewing and home care Seemed like a cruel joke



I couldn't take all their preaching

So up to the city I fled

When you're feeling as lonely as I did

Your price is a meal or a bed



And though men were the custom I dealt with

It was me that they clapped in the pen

The man at the bench put the blame square on me

For the laws are made by and for men



When a woman comes out of a prison

Life's hard as hell outside

But there's ways to forget all the hurt and the rage

And to climb from the depths to a high



But the high it was never for ever

And always the pain burned back through

When you're way past despair, past caring to care

There seems nothing that no one can do



It was stomach pumps, shrinks, social workers

Most of them sold on square lies

Never questioning all of the rules they obey

Never asking the hows and the whys



One question I'd always been asking

Was "Why should this happen to me?"

There my sisters helped me feel how we all get this deal That's

what they don't want us to see

For the first time I've pride and respect now

And some power to change things myself

So we need not be outcasts, my sisters.

If we stand up and fight for ourselves



@feminist @jail @education

Written and recorded by Frankie Armstrong

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