Doula in the Shadows lyrics

[spoken]
“Okay, so I have too many projects planned but my life feels always on the teetering edge of falling apart.”

[Laughter from the audience.]

[spoken]
“I’m an artist!”

My parents only had sex once to have me
I’m not even my own tragic himbo’s baby
An Act of Congress converted my mother’s visa
Into a pathway to citizenship
In Babylon
After Tiananmen
My favorite LP as a kid in Houston
Was Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie by Alanis Morissette
She played God in a movie called Dogma
My name is Colson Lin
And I don’t know why I’m here…

“Littlest of us…”
(Power is power)
My emotional memories
Are of the cruelest among us
(Power is power)
So what Apriled my journey?
I’m a shield of armor yet I know I’m a crossbow
Like a Prosperity Gospel that only God must know!
I grow sincere when my efforts feel hollow
(If I bear fruits? I lilt mellow…)
What midwifed my life into a “death blow”
For postmodernity? (I been milkin’ her typos!)
Must be a lot of Pepsi in the meadows, or…
[whispered] “Maybe there’s a doula in the shadows…”
(“Or maybe only God knows…”)

I read the news these days with my eyes glazed
Tryin’ to ’member purity from my most innocent days
I loved the way Alanis spun a path through
Her mind’s garden, as she held true
To mysteries that unravel us all
Life tends to be (don’t it?) an emotional epic
For all of us, for each of us…
Fundaments are a transcendent higher power…
They do animate
God can gravitate…

Uh oh, uh oh
(“Even the littlest among us…”)
My emotional memories are all
Of the lowest
Outta all of us
(Uh oh, uh oh)
So who midwifed my journey?
I’m a shield of armor and yet I’m a crossbow!
I’m like a Prosperity Gospel that only God must know!
I go sincere when my efforts feel hollow
(“I’m so mellow when I don’t have to be shallow…”)
What midwifed my life into a “death blow”?
From Satan, I’ll start milkin’ his typos!
(Hm) must be a lot of Pepsi secreted in the meadow, or
“Maybe there’s a doula in the shadows”
(You know who I’m talking about…)

True are our linguistic amplifications
Framed by ethics as they come alive, come alive
God hates insincerity
Reason can re-cog-nize anyone’s hypocrisy
And if reason is God? Must touch everyone
God must exist through all of us

I don’t know why I can do this
(“Pink is Her flavor, pop my riddle…”)
I don’t know why I can function in this
“Hypothetically dysfunctional role”
You argue “messiahs are dysfunctional”
Well, I been here since 2022 waitin’ for reasons…
The future might wanna see ’em, you know… written out
[(Beyoncé:) “Turn that cherry out”]
“From words, we could learn somethin’ from spam”
I don’t know why any man can do this…
Our lives must reflect
The spirit of how we exist
That’s definitional
(“So spirit’s constitutional…”)
[spoken]
So the Second Coming would be
A “global”—“spi-ri-tual”—“revolution”!
But who mothered it?
And who’s tryin’ to smother
Her True Authorship?

Oh, I’m a shield of armor and I’m a crossbow!
I’m like a Prosperity Gospel that only God must know!
I go sincere when my musings feel hollow
I get quite angry whenever I feel fallow
(“I’m not happy if I have to speak shallow…”)
What midwifed my life into a “death blow”?
From him—I’ll start skulkin’ for hypnos
(Hm) must be a whole lotta Pepsi
Sequestered in all them meadows, or…
“Maybe there’s a doula in the shadows”
(Oh, you know who I’m talking about…)

“Maybe there’s a doula in the shadows”
(Of our “free will”)
Or is that too unsettling?
“Maybe there’s a doula in the shadows”
(Of the “human story”)
Well then, that’d be conclusively settling…
(A “death blow” for patriarchy)

For “God is here”

[spoken]
“Maybe a dingo ate-chyah baby…”