Speaking Of Tongues Lyrics - Stay Human - Michael Franti

You don't have to be so scared to share what's inside 

'cause you're Daddy's little superstar 

And you're Mama's little butterfly 

Fly high 

A strange strange litany of verses and reverses 

Adlibs and rehearses 

Clouds burst and words cursed 

An argument breaks out 

It's one we've all heard before, it's boring 

Had us all snoring from the first line 

One after another chimed in perfect time 

Tired rehashes of petty cashes and mismatches 

You shoulda coulda's 

And "why didn't 'tcha dida's" 

Crippling snippets aimed at the heart 

To inflame and impart blame 

Framed like Mumia 

Verbal diarrhea 

Creating chasms between the souls of two 

Or two billion 

Nations torn apart 

Station to station damnation 

With much deliberation and very little consideration 

To the return on the damage from the altercation 

Collateral condemnation 

Then denyin' like colorization of an old black and white 

Create a revision of the recent last night 

The fight that started with two words, "I'm right" 

[Chorus] 

You don't have to be so scared to share what's inside 

'cause you're Daddy's little superstar 

And you're Mama's little butterfly 

Fly high 

But of course the fight ends with no resolution 

Merely a vow for retribution, substitution, execution, electrocution 

Ruthless, toothless and truthless 

Mumbling through page after page of excuses 

Abuses of the gift of the gab 

Gabriel the trumpeter 

Bestowed upon us a voice with a choice 

And a tongue kept moist by years of salivating 

For oysters, pearls and aphrodisiacs 

Locked in an ugly shell always too chewy and gooey 

So they get swallowed whole 

But a tongue is so much more than a vehicle for greed 

A tongue is for washing fur 

Or for licking wounds 

Or for welcoming newcomers into a room 

Or cleansing those fresh from the womb 

Without a tongue there would be no croons 

Swoons, Junes under the moon 

No bees pollinating no flowers in bloom 

No recitation of words at the foot of a tomb 

Or wills read aloud of the family heirlooms 

You probably couldn't even blow up a balloon 

And that would be a shame 

Because to exhales the name of the game 

Exhale from the heart 

Not from the lungs 

Exhale from the heart 

Not from the tongue 

[Chorus] 

Listening is understanding 

And finding compassion 

Love is the action of soul satisfaction 

A tongue can make wishes and also fine kisses 

Taste a sweet cake and also cast disses 

But nothing compares to the voice from within 

Without it we might just be mannequins 

Up to no darn good shenanigans 

Learn to be skilful movers of the stones 

That block the heart and turn humans to clones 

Learn to forgive, set free the bones 

Touch with your flesh, take off the rubber gloves 

Love like your life depends on it 

Because it does 

[Chorus]