Make a Smaller Tribe

I don’t know what to tell you

Just--

Just make a smaller tribe

You used to go outside this house

And worry about--

You always did

You always did worry about

This bigger picture

This picture where it’s important

That everybody looks out

For everybody else

I didn’t raise you to think that way

I didn’t teach you to worry about

Some big moral standard

I told you

To take care of your tribe

Who you marry

Your kids

Your parents

That’s what I said

Who I said

To look out for

Be a good person, sure

But a good person

Looks out for their own
And that’s what I always told you

And then that thing happened

With your Uncle Chris

And I had to cut him loose

Now, he was my tribe

But see

People in your tribe

Are still people

And they screw up

They screw up

And when they do

The tribe shrinks

Because, uh, uh, uh

The tribe

That’s what’s important

The group

The thing

That’s the big thing

That you keep the tribe

Going

Even if one person

Drifts off

Or screws up

Or whatever

You make a smaller tribe

And that’s tough

Nobody’s saying

It’s not tough

But you got to do it

My baby brother

Someone I love

Someone I protected

My whole life

And I had to cut him loose

Because I had to think about the other people

I owed things to

I had to think of you

And your sisters

And you know…

Broke my heart

Broke it right in half

Damn you, Chris

I say it all the time

But what you gotta understand

Is that one day

You

Or one of your sisters

Might screw up

The way your Uncle Chris screwed up

And if that happens--

You’re gone

And it’ll break me again
Even worse than I am right now

But I’ll still have people to think of

I’ll still have your father

To worry about

And if I had to

I could shrink everything

Down to him

Down to him and me

If I had to

He'd never hurt me

And I’d never hurt him

But if that wasn’t the case--

Sometimes you gotta be

Your own tribe

You know?

Sometimes if you want to fall back

You gotta know

That the only person waiting to catch you

Is you