Put em up, them bruises are beautiful These key ingredients are beautiful Like cheekbone birthmarks in the shapes of roses, or Third degree burns that retired firemen earned What a privilege! Like Auntie not embarrassed of her scars Proves that she's cancerless Breastless, but breathless, huh That's pain Like handcrafted scars, a tapestry of bruises It's beautiful mutilation like branding and tattoos is That's pain, huh Like ancient pagan practices of scarification - It damages skin horribly, but them marks demark royalty That's pain, huh Marred in a Potter's hands, that's pain Off on purpose But if you don't know your purpose, you might feel worthless That's pain Like hearing the buzz of the motor as that needle digs deep Shoving ink further, forcing it, no, piercing it into permanence That's pain Made to get another, bottling up my tears till the day that we rise Toss your arthritis filled knuckles to the sky, that's pain But they're beautiful Like Hail Mary full of grace She was proud of her stretch marks How her skin expanded to bring forth the Son of Man That's pain But it's beautiful It's beautiful, I feel it just before we discovered Him It's beautiful Like Grandmama singing in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, see We used to stay home for Martin Luther King, homie, I'm from South Central, and that's beautiful You is looking at a lastborn, rightful heir to the throne, son of a nobody with poverty in my bones, and that's beautiful We ain't never had nothing, but nothing was sufficient It kept my belly full of the stuff the rich was missing, and that's beautiful Thank God for the tax return that got us up outta there, that's beautiful So in honor of Jimi Hendrix, I string life's instrument backwards And choose to play the back cause in the Word, the last is first and that's beautiful (The last is first.) The pain...is beautiful Your mutilation...is beautiful Your life tattoo...is beautiful