[Verse 1] I learned my name from a mailbox crack, from a lunch-pail dent, from a hand-me-down fact. I learned to smile with a chipped front tooth, to say I’m fine like that made it truth. My mother folded bills like prayers. My father left silence on the stairs. And me? I kept the little things: coins in a jar, torn-up strings, a shirt with a stain I never washed out, a laugh too loud for a house that doubts. [Pre-Chorus] So I walked with my shoulders high, like a boy made of smoke and a borrowed sky. I said, look at me, look at me now— but my knees still shook every time I bowed. [Chorus] I am not made of paper teeth I can bite back I can bite back I am not made of paper teeth I still taste the blood and keep on speaking [Verse 2] There was a day the floor gave way. Not all at once— just enough to say: trust is a chair with one short leg, hope is a bone you learn to beg. I wore my grief like a Sunday coat, buttoned tight at the throat. But under that cloth, under the seam, there was a fist, there was a dream, there was a name I had not said out loud in years. [Pre-Chorus] And it rose like heat from the street, like a match in the mouth of defeat. I said, stay with me, stay with me now— I’ve been small too long for a life this loud. [Chorus] I am not made of paper teeth I can bite back I can bite back I am not made of paper teeth I still taste the blood and keep on speaking [Bridge] If you find me bent, do not call me broken. If you find me quiet, that does not mean open. I have been thunder under stone, a locked jaw learning to be known. I have been a window with the blinds drawn tight, still letting dawn through every fight. [Final Chorus] I am not made of paper teeth Say it clean Say it clean I am not made of paper teeth I was built from the ache and the will to remain I can bite back I can bite back I can bite back I am not made of paper teeth
