lyrics
Miles Davis on the train keepin me calm,
tellin me there isn't such a thing as a lost cause.
Today, I teach my students how to count bars, but it's hard
to tell kids to freestyle in a room full of armed guards.
I get kinda blue when my check's late,
but their kinda blue's a sweatsuit with county numbers on the breastplate.
I’m not trying to save anybody. That’s not the point.
I'm trying to convince somebody it's worth it to save their voice.
But by their count, they’re counted out by everybody:
Their mom or the system, their religion, and a jury that isn't
of their peers. Given years for some kid shit.
Digits on their wrist and permission they gotta ask to take a piss with.
I'm headed home from work trying not to sob,
but this is a drought an ocean of saltwater couldn't solve.
I know nine-to-five is how you survive, but swear to God
if I survive my nine-to-five, I'll never work another job.
I just got to work, and I already wanna go home.
I just got to work, and I already wanna go home.
I just got to work, and I already wanna go home.
I just got to work, and I already wanna go home.
Panic attacks on my morning commute.
Paycheck printed with ink strained from poisonous fruit.
State dropped the needle on that vicious cycle,
And we taught all the kids who caught the loop--caught the loop--caught the loop--caught the loop
Image in my head: off white iron and orange suits.
Nope. Just youth crammed into a prosecutor’s garbage chutes.
Dickens reboot--at the front of the class pourin soup.
Want interviews? Their tattoos will report the war for you.
Kids cop pleas, and don’t know what they’ll get back,
Or when they’ll get back. They might come home to jeptacks.
Saw a boy kicked out of class for lookin up gang lit,
so he wouldn’t be a neutron when he started his downstate bid.
Wanted to ask how the teacher learned to be so cold.
Tried as an adult? I don’t care if they write me no poems.
At supermarkets memorizing prices for pay-as-you-go phones.
In my nightmares, I still hear, “I just wanna go home...I just wanna go home...I just wanna go home...I just wanna go home…”
credits
from
Trapdoor,
released November 23, 2021
(A. Levin, D. Zunikoff)
license
all rights reserved
