[Title: Trophy Black Child]
[Style: Folk], [Indie-Folk], [Singer-Songwriter], [Acoustic Storytelling], [Haunting]
[Instrumentation: Acoustic Guitar (Fingerpicked), Cello, Violin, Minimal Percussion]
(Music Starts: A single acoustic guitar, fingerpicking a sad, simple, beautiful melody. A cello holds one long, low note. [Vibe: Bon Iver])
(Verse 1)
[Music Tag: Intimate Female Vocals, Hushed, Close-Mic Vocal]
Radio and books for friends
Crying in the closet, where the story ends
And begins... a new name, a new house
Had to be so quiet, like a mouse
Twenty-four-hour notice, just to be a kid
Felt like something I always hid
White walls, white parents, strict and cold
A story I was never really told.
(Chorus)
[Music Tag: Music swells slightly, Violin harmony comes in, Haunting Harmonies]
Oh, the loneliness of a borrowed home
Feeling like a garden, never fully grown
Just a "trophy black child" on the shelf
Tryin' to find a piece of my own self
And a "thank you, Jesus" in my head
From a camp where I was really fed
That Camp Krislund heart... was all I had.
(Verse 2)
[Music Tag: Honest Delivery]
Felt different from the exchange students who
Came and went, and my mom, she knew
How to make me feel so small
(Ad-lib: was I hers at all?)
So I put a smile on, perfect, bright
Tried to be her "trophy" in the light
But I was searchin', in the dark
For my own name, my own spark.
(Chorus)
[Music Tag: Cello is stronger here]
Oh, the loneliness of a borrowed home
Feeling like a garden, never fully grown
Just a "trophy black child" on the shelf
Tryin' to find a piece of my own self
And a "thank you, Jesus" in my head
From a camp where I was really fed
That Camp Krislund heart... was all I had.
(Bridge)
[Music Tag: Music gets very quiet, just the guitar picking]
Flea-filled carpets, scary men
The life that I was in back then
The mother who just let me go...
Which one is home? I'll never know.
One was chaos, one was cold
A story that just gets so old
But the girl who dove into the Word
Is the only one who really heard...
(Chorus - Softly)
[Music Tag: Music comes back, tenderly]
Oh, the loneliness of a borrowed home
Feeling like a garden, never fully grown
Just a "trophy black child" on the shelf
Tryin' to find a piece of my own self
And a "thank you, Jesus" in my head
From a camp where I was really fed
That Camp Krislund heart...
(Outro)
[Music Tag: Acoustic guitar and cello fade out slowly]
Radio and books for friends...
Crying in the closet...
Where the story begins.
(whispered) Eyepiercinglove
(Fade to silence.)
Eyepiercinglove
