Clay in My Chest

Same jacket

Same block

Same pain

Different clock

Unpaid bills taped to the fridge door

Mama say pray but her knees sore

Pop gone, left a hole in the screen porch

Learned young how a hug can just lean short

Court dates circled in a red pen

Food stamps stretch, tryna make ten feel like ten again

Homies in a cell over quick pride

I learned silence got an echo when your friend died

Scroll through the names in my phone list

Half of them gone, other half on a long shift

Therapist ask how I been, I just laugh

Say I'm fine, but my eyes do the math

Bottle on the nightstand, calling my name

I ain't sip, but I stare like we sharing the blame

Sleep hard when the heart heavy as a safe

Every dream feel fake, I just wake for the ache

This that sad and real shit

Every scar, every guilt trip

Tears dried up but it still hit

Yeah, I carry what I can't fix

This that sad and real shit

Kitchen floor, closed fists

I keep walking with a cracked spirit

But I'm still here, you can feel it

Little bro ask why the rent late

I tell him it's grown-up stuff, change the subject, switch states

He just want new shoes for the gym class

I see my childhood in him like a dim glass

School called, said he swung on a kid

Said he tired of being laughed at for the way that we live

I ain't mad, I just hugged him in the hallway

Said, "We ain't choose this, but we choose not to fall, ayy"

Late night, scrolling through the past like a feed

Everybody flexing, I just bleed in the weeds

They say "speak up," but they flip when it's too raw

They want pain in a picture they can scroll past bored

So I rap low, for the ones that won't talk

For the girl with the sleeves long, even on a short walk

For the boy with the smile like a thin mask

Saying "I'm good" with a history he can't ask

If I said I'm okay, that's a half-truth

I'm just guarding all the parts that the world chewed

If you lonely in a crowd, I been there

Raise a hand in your head, that's a silent prayer

Maybe healing just a slow walk home

Past every bad choice, past every gravestone

If you hear this in the dark, and your heart feel split

You ain't gotta say a word

We just share this shit