“Search” (B1)

HOOK (x2):
Another day, another tightrope.
I’m tryna find somethin like hope.
All the right words buried under white smoke.
I’m tryna find somethin like hope. Somethin like hope.

The search for a portal through this maze
is as ancient as the Sphinx and immortal as its gaze.
I don’t wanna be the kind of calm that falls into a rage,
with a spirit on the breath and a monster in the veins.
I record, and then it’s tamed, never caged for display,
or exhibited til witnesses ashamed and afraid.
I’m a ray short of rose-tinted, posed in the shade,
out the edges of the pot to the folds of the flames.
Cold in the artery, oxes for atoms. Take me back to when it was only props in the balance
of the battles that we managed, or the worst embarrassments
were ballads we was rappin to women who didn’t ask us.
The challenge isn’t makin it. It’s keepin it, and learning
by teaching how to be raisin strengths outta weaknesses.
Lost, then I found the first step toward better.
This the distance from the past that regret don’t measure.

HOOK (x2)

“Shelter in Place II” (B2)

She’s a soft breeze tuggin bronzed leaves outta tall trees
the first gasp of air that the dawn breathes.
I love her like the smile I can hear through the phone when she calls me,
like days without alarms to respect or acknowledge.
I love her like she loves dresses with pockets.
I love her more than her roots move,
harder than her hips hug a new groove.
More than she used to love orange slices and Blue Moons,
harder than I hated my pockets for yellin’, “Too soon!”
A spell as ancient as a crude rune.
July thirty-first through June.
The day’s weight’s lightened by her chuckle,
savin to throw another couple diamonds by her knuckle.
She don’t need it cuz she got it but I still wanna give her
the same buzz as the liquor bubbles dancin wit the mixer.
Bitters on the tongue, kissin til she hums.
A voice in my head, like,
“This is love. This is what it does.
This is love. This is what it does.
This is love. This is what it does.
This is love, this is love, this is love...”