Smoke in the Sax Trap

Click of the lighter

Lip on the reed

Gold on the mouthpiece

Clock on the speed (hah)

Corner café, back room hush

Ashtray mountain, cards in a flush

Old heads argue over one missed touch

Young ones counting every gram too much

Lines on the table

Lines in the staff

Tattoos fade

But the scars still laugh

Abuela praying in the flat upstairs

We trade jokes in between her prayers

Smoke in the sax trap

Coffee on the stove top

Rhythm in the drip drop

Heart on the back block (hey)

Blessings in a brown bag

Curses in a glass cup

World on my thin neck

Still I keep my chin up

Smoke in the sax trap

Foot on the cracked tile

Past in a shoebox

Future on redial

Trumpet case full of rent and hope

Practice scales just to learn to cope

Pass that chair, pass that rope

We hang on bars like a bridge we wrote

Neighbors dance to the floorboard thump

Floor shakes soft with the old man's bump

He spins her slow, she still got jump

We live on crumbs but we eat that funk (ooh)

Smoke in the sax trap

Coffee on the stove top

Rhythm in the drip drop

Heart on the back block

Blessings in a brown bag

Curses in a glass cup

World on my thin neck

Still I keep my chin up (yeah)

Smoke in the sax trap

Foot on the cracked tile

Past in a shoebox

Future on redial

Snap to the clave, swing to the side

Saint on my chain, sin in my stride (hey)

If I fall off, let the horn testify

Every wrong note still says I tried

Smoke in the sax trap

Coffee on the stove top

Rhythm in the drip drop

Heart on the back block

Blessings in a brown bag

Curses in a glass cup

World on my thin neck

Still I keep my chin up

Smoke in the sax trap

Foot on the cracked tile

Past in a shoebox

Future on redial