Clara Bellino: Listen/VideoFilm/Vox

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I'm not crazy about anthems, the French or American one. When I became an American I decided to write my own, dedicated to all the peoples of America, who once all came from somewhere else. It's also a "letter" to my mom, "the mess your courage got us in" refers to the fact that I first lived here as a kid becuase of her and my dad's adventurous spirit. I told my mom the difference now that I was also an American was that if I
messed up they wouldn't deport me anymore, I'd go straight to jail! hence Potential Criminal.

Potential Criminal

it takes a lot of courage
a particular kind
to learn about living
far from your land

but if you stood in my shoes
you'd see your own courage
and that I couldn't do
half the things you do

we spend so much time apart
then at the end of the year
in so many ways
we make up the time


now that
I'm a corn-eating swashbuckling
beer drinking community minded
uprooted re-rooted
a naturalized American
now I'm another potential criminal


we ravish with our beauty
while putting on a show
with gold in cups of wine
and standing heaven still

we're not as tough as we think
we break our walls brick by brick
oh say can you see
the mess your courage got us in



now that
I'm a corn-eating swashbuckling
beer drinking community minded
uprooted re-rooted
a naturalized American
I'm a corn-eating swashbuckling
beer-drinking community minded
uprooted re-rooted
a naturalized American
now I'm another potential criminal
mom I'm just another potential criminal


we're not as tough as we think
we break our walls brick by brick
oh say can you see
the mess your courage got us in


now that
I'm a corn-eating swashbuckling
beer-drinking community minded
uprooted re-rooted
a naturalized American
I'm a corn-eating swashbuckling
beer-drinking community minded
uprooted re-rooted
a naturalized American
now I'm another potential criminal
with life and liberty
another potential criminal
I've got the right to be
another potential criminal
oh mother help me I'm
another potential criminal
I've got the right to remain silent
mom I'm just another potential criminal


Written by Clara Bellino, Copyright 2005, "Blinky Beano Muisc" publishing, BMI.