Ani Difranco My I.Q. lyrics

When I was 4 years old they
Tried to test my I.Q
They showed me this picture
Of 3 oranges and a pear

They asked me which one
Is different and does not belong
They taught me different is wrong

But when I was 13 years old
I woke up one morning
Thighs covered in blood

Like a war, like a warning
That I live in a breakable, takable body
An ever increasingly valuable body

That a woman had come in the night
To replace me, deface me
See, my body is borrowed

Yeah, I got it on loan
For the time in between
My mom and some maggots

I don't need anyone to hold me
I can hold my own
I got highways for stretch marks
See where I've grown

I sing sometimes
Like my life is at stake

'Cause you're only as loud
As the noises you make

I'm learning to laugh
As loud as I can listen
'Cause silence is violence
In women and poor people

If more people were screaming
Then I could relax
But a good brain ain't diddly
If you don't have the facts

We live in a breakable, takable world
An ever available, possible world
And we can make music
Like we can make do

Genius is in a backbeat
Backseat to nothing
If you're dancing

Especially something stupid like I.Q
For every lie I unlearn
I learn something new

I sing sometimes for the war that I fight
'Cause every tool is a weapon
If you hold it right