Highwomen

I was a Highwoman

And a mother from my youth

For my children I did what I had to do

My family left Honduras when they killed the Sandinistas

We followed a coyote through the dust of Mexico

Every one of them except for me survived

And I am still alive

I was a healer

I was gifted as a girl

I laid hands upon the world

Someone saw me sleeping naked in the noon sun

I heard "witchcraft" in the whispers and I knew my time had come

The bastards hung me at the Salem gallows hill

But I am living still

I was a freedom rider

When we thought the South had won

Virginia in the spring of '61

I sat down on the Greyhound that was bound for Mississippi

My mother asked me if that ride was worth my life

And when the shots rang out I never heard the sound

But I am still around

And I'll take that ride again

And again

And again

And again

And again

I was a preacher

My heart broke for all the world

But teaching was unrighteous for a girl

In the summer I was baptized in the mighty Colorado

In the winter I heard the hounds and I knew I had been found

And in my Savior's name, I laid my weapons down

But I am still around

We are The Highwomen

Singing stories still untold

We carry the sons you can only hold

We are the daughters of the silent generations

You sent our hearts to die alone in foreign nations

It may return to us as tiny drops of rain

But we will still remain

And we'll come back again and again and again

And again and again

And we'll come back again and again and again

And again and again