Lantern

I lit one match In the ruin in the ash Just to see if the dark Would answer back Lantern on the floor Flicker in the marrow Light don’t cure the war But it carries me through shadow Lantern on the floor Barely holding flame But even in the silence The glow still knows my name I been bent I been battered I been bartered for scraps Every scar is a scripture Every rib is a trap Yet my chest keeps percussion Lungs drum on the pain Drummin up thunder Blood hummin under Coffin in my cadence but it kicks back hunger I ain’t holy ain’t healed But the iron won’t bend Marrow makes the meter till the marrow’s in the pen They tried to snuff the spark Thought my bones would concede But I’m a ghost with a gospel And the ghost still bleeds Lantern on the floor Flicker in the marrow Light don’t cure the war But it carries me through shadow Lantern on the floor Barely holding flame But even in the silence The glow still knows my name I don’t beg for the dawn I don’t chase after hope I just braid every loss in the lines that I wrote When the night turns feral When the past still hums I unravel my ribs Let the raw truth drum Say I’m fragile I fracture But I flex in the fire My survival’s a cipher My despair builds a choir If the dawn never comes let the night start rough I was born to the threshold my bones call the bluff Stay little light stay Don’t fade little light stay My bones are your cage My ribs are your frame Stay little light stay Don’t fade little light stay You don’t have to save me Just don’t walk away Lantern on the floor Flicker in the marrow Light don’t cure the war But it carries me through shadow Lantern on the floor Barely holding flame But even in the silence The glow still knows my name Still knows my name Still knows my name Still knows my name