[Cold Intro] He showed me pictures on a cracked phone screen. Blue water. Clean streets. A room with a window. He said: “Two months there, and you send money home.” I asked him what it cost. He smiled. [Verse 1] Mama sold the bracelets she kept in a tin I sold the bike and the tools from the shed My brother wrote every number we owed On the back of an envelope beside my bed The man wore white shoes in the middle of dust Never raised his voice, never seemed in a rush Said there was work where the buildings touch clouds Said nobody sleeps six men to a house He knew the right pictures, the right names to use One cousin made good, one boy bought a roof Every answer came easy, polished and clean By then leaving looked possible on that cracked little screen [Hook] He sold me a horizon Bright enough to leave Said the road gets hard before It gives you what you need He sold me a horizon I paid before I knew How far a man can travel Still owing what he’s due [Verse 2] First truck had twenty where ten should have been No windows in the back, just heat getting in At the next place they counted us twice at the door Then asked for more money we didn’t have anymore A boy from the east kept a photo in his shoe His daughter had braids and a gap in her tooth Three nights later nobody called out his name We kept moving forward because stopping cost the same Then came the water No speech No prayer loud enough Just diesel Wet clothes And hands holding hands that had never met before Someone kept saying: "Don’t look down." So I didn’t. [Interlude] (Female Phone Voice, spoken, distant telephone sound) "You arrived? Call me when you can. Your mother keeps asking. She doesn’t sleep." [Verse 3] Now I wake at four in a room with no lock Six names on the buzzer, twelve shoes in a box I carry stone till my fingers go numb Cash at the end if the foreman still comes I know which streets to leave before blue lights show Which station stays open when there’s nowhere to go I wash one shirt in the sink every night Hang it by the heater so it’s dry before light Sunday they call and I turn toward the wall Keep the camera high so they don’t see it all (Phone Voice, spoken, distant telephone sound) "Is it good there?" Yeah. I’m fine. Then I show them the skyline from somebody else’s window across the street. [Hook] He sold me a horizon Bright enough to leave Said the road gets hard before It gives you what you need He sold me a horizon Now I know the view Looks wide from far away Till every door says no to you [Bridge] I don’t tell them about the boy with the photograph I don’t tell them what the water took I don’t tell them what they pay me or what they don’t I send fifty home and suddenly I sound like the man who sold it to me [Instrumental – sparse, almost silent] [Final Hook] He sold me a horizon I can see it from here Same blue line past the rooftops Still never getting near He sold me a horizon Now my brother wants to come He says: “Tell me what it’s like there.” [Pause] I look around the room. [Outro – spoken] I tell him: “Wait.”
