The first time he hit me, the church sent a woman in chains
She went through my cookbook as if that could be somehow to blame
The bishop said, “Drop your charges or I’ll make your life hell on earth”
When a church leader speaks the thinking’s been done
That was all we were worth

So I never knew joy for so many years
Beneath the thumbs of boys we cried our tears
And we never were ever enough

If I could just be better than my Sunday best
he might still love me
then he would sit with his angels beautifully dressed
and not up above me
If I could just be perfect in these latter days
But our strength in numbers cuts both ways

I went to the temple and said I’d cut my throat, but in vain
For I had no burning in my belly but they had pills for that sort of pain
My sisters, we stood in our lines and we let them back in
Over and over, “try not to provoke him
try to stay out from under his skin”

So I never knew peace, always afraid
that the other side was all they say
and I’d never be ever enough

The day finally came I lost my daughters in the words that they say
They stuff their larders, a machine in a way, just plowing us under
On the way to the top
It’s the logical conclusion for a man who never stopped
I lost my illusions, like a bull in a shop I let it all crash down