Check to check

Check… to check…

Check… to check…

Livin’ life on a wire with a safety net… (nope)

Check… to check…

⸻

I budget tears like dollars, countin’ every dime,

Life’s a overdue notice and I’m outta time,

Got a job, got a grind, but it’s never enough,

Every payday just a bandage on a deeper cut.

Landlord knockin’, yeah, he knockin’ again,

Same polite smile but the pressure sinkin’ in,

Got a fridge half full and a phone past due,

Tryna stretch one meal into two or three for you.

⸻

Pay it now! Pay it late!

Either way, you pay the weight!

Stack it up! Watch it fall!

You can’t ever pay it all!

⸻

Bills stack tall like a mountain I climb,

Every step I take cost another piece of time,

Interest buildin’ like a storm in the sky,

Tryna stay afloat but I’m sinkin’ inside.

Card decline, line behind, feel the heat on my neck,

Tryna laugh it off but I’m losin’ respect,

Every swipe like a gamble, every day like a test,

And the price of survival got me feelin’ obsessed.

⸻

Partner:

We said it’d get better, remember that dream?

A house, a future, more than just “in-between”…

Lead:

I’m still holdin’ on, but it’s slippin’ away,

Every promise we made gettin’ harder to say…

⸻

LEAD (half-sung):

I hear the clock tick louder than my heartbeat now…

ENSEMBLE (layered whispers):

Tick… tick… don’t stop…

LEAD:

I’m runnin’ in circles, don’t know how…

⸻

Check to check, I’m livin’ check to check,

Dreams on pause while I’m drownin’ in debt,

No safety net, just regret and sweat,

But I ain’t done fightin’ yet!

Check to check, yeah, I’m breakin’ my neck,

Tryna keep it together while I’m losin’ my breath,

One step forward, two steps wrecked—

Still I rise, check to check!

⸻

LEAD:

Mama worked double just to keep lights on,

Said, “Baby, stay strong when the hope feel gone,”

Now I’m standin’ in the same worn shoes,

Singin’ the same old broke-down blues.

ENSEMBLE (echo):

Same old blues…

LEAD:

I swore I’d break every chain she wore,

But the system got a lock I can’t ignore…

⸻

LEAD (soft, vulnerable):

What if I fall and there’s nothin’ beneath?

What if I give and got nothin’ to keep?

What if this grind is all that I’ll be…?

You’re more… you’re more… than what you see…

⸻

I refuse to be another name in the line,

Another story where the struggle define,

Every scar that I got is a mark that I earned,

Every lesson in the fire is a page that I turned.

So I fight, stay tight, hold the vision in sight,

Even when the dark days turn to longer nights,

And the weight of the world got me bent, not broke—

I’m still breathin’, still dreamin’, still holdin’ hope!

⸻

Check to check, yeah, we livin’ check to check,

But we rise every time