A Different Side of Fangs
I feel the constriction
The scales spiraling around my neck
I hope that you’re well fed
and just lost track
I’ve seen how the scales tip in favor before there’s anything set
I’ve read the words from your mouth before they’re ever even said
Am I seeing life from the same perspective
Or are their eyes devising another way
On one side of the mouth lies protection
The other side a deep sharp disconnection
I don’t know what it’s like to be judged by the color of my skin
I’ve been seeing life through a different side of fangs
I’ve been seeing life through a different side of fangs
I held tight for way too long
Constricted into false convictions
Afraid of the bite before
I bit my tongue
No matter your stripes we’re all human
We waited for a world to wash itself
But insufficient freedoms failed to reveal themselves
The prevailing truth was to recall the repeated mantra
To let the venomous die
But they bite their young and their venom spreads
I know the heat permeates through our words
I know our slited pupils blur
I know the poison drips from our mouths
I know we made no easy way out
Setting traps to make others slither
Watching our own souls wither
We can’t let our differences fixate
Or are we to swallow our tail for decades
___________________________________________________________________________
ADSoF was one of the last lyric sets I wrote for the EP shortly following the large scale BLM protests across the country. As a Caucasian, I did not know how to feel or appropriately respond to the pain and injustice I was constantly reading about. I felt this way for a long time and didn’t know what to do or how to express that the system is, and has been, absolutely broken.
The entire concept of this song and the album art stems from this idea. An entity meant to protect everyone is seen from an entirely different perspective. For me personally I have felt for the majority of life, protected by law enforcement. I was on the inside of the fangs, they protected me.
Of course, this was not the reality for a lot of people who have been seeing the fangs from the outside. People who have been systematically targeted and forgotten in a corrupt and broken institution that routinely gets away with criminal offenses. I have been seeing life from a different side of fangs, and that realization makes me upset, hurt, and ultimately frustrated that these types of events have continued to occur without the social changes that they warrant. We cannot feel protected by an institution that is not held accountable for their actions or statistically shows bias in how they perform their jobs. These are the thoughts I hoped to express in ADSoF.
I feel the constriction
The scales spiraling around my neck
I hope that you’re well fed
and just lost track
The realization that law enforcement isn’t equally protective to every citizen should make any individual concerned for their own safety . I hope these incidents are isolated, but they are not.
I’ve seen how the scales tip in favor before there’s anything set
I’ve read the words from your mouth before they’re ever even said
I have seen first hand racial bias and people being treated differently based off of their skin color or ethnicity. It’s not uncommon and it’s a broken faulty system that makes a mockery of justice.
I know the heat permeates through our words
I know our slited pupils blur
I know the poison drips from our mouths
I know we made no easy way out
Setting traps to make others slither
Watching our own souls wither
I acknowledge that the system is set up to primarily help white people succeed and there have been, and are still, so many privileges and benefits afforded to me and many people of my skin tone that we take for granted and don’t realize how much of a disadvantage others are at because of a percentage of society who are biased. I acknowledge the history of racism and current racial issues that are even furthering that damage and how the public perception of these events have lagged behind and not properly told the entire truth of these issues. Ultimately, I end the verse with “watching our own souls wither” because creating division and treating people differently based off of the color of their skin is soulless, mindless, absurdity that only diminishes what it means to be human.
We can’t let our differences fixate
Or are we to swallow our tail for decades
The song ends with a reference to Ouroboros, a snake which perpetually swallows its own tail for eternity. If we let our differences define and divide us, we are destined to do the same: swallow our tail, never progressing, having the same unsatisfactory results over and over again. As a country and society we need equality, we need to be able to live life through the same perspective. If not, there will always be unrest, always be injustice, and always be unwarranted suffering. I hope this song helps to highlight a bit of these issues.
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