[Intro: an ankle monitor beeps twice, one cold piano note] [Hook: tense low male, whispered doubles on the parentheses] Green light on my ankle (green light), green light on my head One means the county's watchin'. One means the crew want me dead Hundred fifty feet to the mailbox. Toes on the line. That's all I'm allowed Night one. Gray car. Engine runnin'. Lights out [Verse 1: low, paranoid, measured] Sixty-three days on my auntie's couch, Calloway Street, plastic still on the lamp Every night I charge my own leg like a phone, two hours, cord on the floor, and a cramp Pretrial on a car I was drivin' for a man I won't say. Not to you. Not to them Nine years loyal. Nine years quiet. And they think sixty fuckin' days on a couch'll make me bend [Flow switch: whispered double-time, the gray car, then the monitor rules off the paper] Every night at eleven-ten, a gray sedan by the corner store, headlights off, motor on Gone by dawn. I know the man. Passed him potato salad at my cousin's in June Now he sits there with the window cracked and the radio low, playin' my favorite tune Strap stays on, don't cut it, don't soak it, don't let it die, don't go past the mailbox post Step over the line and a ping hits the county, a car with a light in four minutes, at most [Hook] Green light on my ankle (green light), green light on my head One means the county's watchin'. One means the crew want me dead Hundred fifty feet to the mailbox. Toes on the line. That's all I'm allowed Night five. Gray car. Window down. Lights out [Verse 2: tighter, colder] So here's the plan, and I'm tellin' you now, so you know it ain't luck when it lands I don't own a gun. Can't. I'm pretrial. All I own is a mailbox and a pair of hands Every night at eleven, I sit on the steps in the porch light, hood down, so he sees Nine nights I learned when he smokes, when he leans, when he breathes [Beat Switch: night nine, drums drop to the monitor beep and an idling engine] Night nine, the car door opened. Gray hoodie. Right hand in the pocket. Heel, toe, curb I walked to the mailbox, looked him dead in his face, and I stepped one foot off my world Beep. Beep. Beep. My ankle singin' like a bird [Spoken, over the beep] Go 'head. My leash got a radio. Four minutes. You heard [A siren swells, the boom-bap slams back] [Verse 3: half-time, blue lights] Cruiser hit the corner in three fifty-one, blue lights paintin' every house on the block He turned around, hand out the pocket, empty, back to the car like a man on a clock Gray car ain't been back. Still, every night at eleven, I'm out there, toes on the line Funny how the only one that wants me alive is the same one that locked me inside [Final Hook: piano alone on the last line] Green light on my ankle (green light), green light on my head One means the county's watchin'. One means the crew want me dead Hundred fifty feet to the mailbox. Toes on the line. That's all I'm allowed Night nine. Gray car. Blue lights. Pull out [Outro: the monitor beeps once, the piano holds, cut] [End]
0/500