Night Train to Neonville

Late shift

Blue smoke

City hum in my coat

I’m broke

I’m a corner-store poet, loose change in my hand

Talking to the glass, it don’t understand

Boss barking numbers, says I’m lucky to stand

I just laugh, say “man, I got other plans”

Old jacket, torn cuff, still smells like home

Mama in the kitchen on a cracked payphone

Told me “keep your heart when the work feels wrong”

So I clock in tired, and clock out strong (yeah)

Street sign flicker on my way out the door

Same cracked sidewalk, but I’m wanting more

Every bad break, every late bill due

Gonna melt it down into something new

I turn my pain into house tonight

I turn these blues into strobe-light life

Every scar on my soul

Beats the drum of my hope

I turn my pain into house tonight

I turn these blues into strobe-light life

Got that hurt in my veins

But it’s moving my feet

I turn my pain into house

Till the hurt sounds sweet (oh yeah)

Clock struck twelve, now the line gets thin

Suit tie loosened, let the bass walk in

Bartender grinning like he knows my sins

Says, “You again?” I say, “I came to win”

Got holes in my sneakers, but the groove still fits

All week I’ve been swallowing these little defeats

Now the floorboards creak like a choir of misfits

Every misstep marching in time with the kicks

Rent past due, yeah, the wolf’s at the gate

But the DJ looping every old heartbreak

I spit my story over snares and shakes

Turn a long hard week to a clean escape (hey!)

I turn my pain into house tonight

I turn these blues into strobe-light life

Every scar on my soul

Beats the drum of my hope

I turn my pain into house tonight

I turn these blues into strobe-light life

Got that hurt in my veins

But it’s moving my feet

I turn my pain into house

Till the hurt sounds sweet

Hands up for the ones who stayed

For the ones who left, for the ones afraid

For the jobs that drained us bone and brain

For the love we lost riding home in the rain

This for the late checks, cold apartments

Secondhand dreams and discount garments

We don’t break, we bend, then bounce

We don’t drown, we dance it out (dance it out)

I turn my pain into house tonight

I turn these blues into strobe-light life

Every scar on my soul

Beats the drum of my hope

I turn my pain into house tonight

I turn these blues into strobe-light life

Got that hurt in my veins

But it’s moving my feet

I turn my pain into house

Till the hurt sounds sweet (so sweet)

I turn my pain into house

Till the hurt sounds sweet