I have dirty fingernails.
What more can I say?
Passed from grandfather to father.
In my family, dirty nails go back a way.

From Africa to America,
That is the path they took.
My ancestors' hands have seen some shit.
Horrors overlooked.

But I see these mangled hands.
Every time I touch,
Hold,
Or preach this philosophy.

And all the dirt entails
Is burned inside of me.
These dirty fingernails,
Scars of my family tree.