Verse 1 They draw a line in numbers from another time, Black-and-white math from a nineteen-sixty rhyme. Food times three, inflation on repeat, But the rent keeps climbing while the wage stays meek. In cold winters, thin air, high ground, That line on the paper don’t touch the ground. They say, “You’re fine,” but the fridge says no, Survival costs more than they’ll ever know. Pre-Chorus After taxes, after pills, After premiums, after bills, What’s left is echoes, paper-thin, A life where “extra” never gets in. Chorus ’Cause the poverty line don’t live where I live, Don’t pay my rent, don’t see what I give. Same number everywhere, but it don’t feel fair, A dollar don’t stretch the same in mountain air. Call it policy, call it design, But reality’s crossed that poverty line. Verse 2 They kept it simple so the system could run, One rule for everyone, weighed down by none. Easier to count, easier to claim, Harder to admit we’re not playing the same game. High plains rent, healthcare highs, Transportation just to survive. They call it choice, they call it gain, But comfort here comes with a heavier chain. Pre-Chorus ALICE working every day, Above the line but still can’t stay. Living wage whispers what truth allows: Barely enough is sixty thousand now. Chorus ’Cause the poverty line don’t live where I live, Don’t buy the time that the job don’t give. Same threshold drawn coast to plain, But pressure hits different when the costs are raised. Say it’s neutral, say it’s fine, But reality’s crossed that poverty line. Bridge They’ve got better maps they won’t unfold, Supplemental truths they already know. Housing costs, medical weight, Geography deciding who eats and who waits. Alaska knows it, Hawaii too, So don’t say change is impossible to do. It’s not confusion, it’s will and cost, And who we count when the numbers get lost. Verse 3 Reform on paper, bills in the hall, Arguments rising like rent on the wall. “Is it poverty or middle-class pain?” Ask the ones drowning while debating the name. Because struggle don’t care what label it wears, When the math don’t work and the cupboard’s bare. Final Chorus ’Cause the poverty line don’t live where we live, Don’t measure the weight of what survival is. Same old numbers, a different day, While the cost of breathing keeps inching away. If a line can’t bend to time and place, It’s not truth — it’s just a trace. Outro So draw it again, with the ground in mind, Let the numbers learn where people survive. ’Cause dignity costs more than a headline can say, And poverty looks different block by block, day by day.
