[Intro: one timpani hit, a downtuned chord, the choir rising like water] [Hook: cold fierce female rapper, the choir shouts the parentheses] Hundred-year flood (hundred years!). That's the name you gave One percent a year, so you built on my bed and you sold it like it's safe Thirty-year mortgage, thirty rolls of the dice. That's one in four Hundred-year flood (hundred years!). I don't read calendars. I read floors [Verse 1: female rapper, cold and measured] Cut my bends in thirty-eight. Fourteen miles of my bed's a mall, a school, a street called Riverbend That's cute. You named the street for the river, then you paved it where the river had been Old feed store on Main got my paint lines: sixty-five, '93, two thousand eleven Hundred-year? I came three times in your daddy's life. You ain't countin'. You fuckin' guessin' [Flow switch: double-time, cold, the bluff, then the forecast, plain] Old folks built up on the bluff. They knew. Grandmamas don't buy in a bowl New folks bought a brochure with a heron on it. Ask the heron where it goes when I roll I ain't sneakin'. I'm tellin' you Monday, so Thursday, don't you act brand new Three days of rain on the ridge, then two a.m., the levee by the plant, and I'm comin' through [Hook] Hundred-year flood (hundred years!). That's the name you gave One percent a year, so you built on my bed and you sold it like it's safe Thirty-year mortgage, thirty rolls of the dice. That's one in four Hundred-year flood (hundred years!). I don't read calendars. I read floors [Verse 2: female rapper, the guitars dig in, the choir climbs] Wednesday, sirens singin' my name on every pole, and I let 'em sing all night I ain't cruel. I'm water. I gave you three days, a siren, and a road. That's polite [Beat Switch: drums drop to the choir and a low roar as the levee goes, then guitars and timpani slam back] Thursday, two a.m., right on time. The levee by the plant went soft, then it went Curb, then the fence, then the hood of the truck, then the mailbox flag, then the vents I ran Riverbend Lane like a bride down the aisle. Took the mall, took the lot, took the sign Didn't touch the bluff. Not a drop. Grandmamas on the porch with their coffee, watchin' me shine [Verse 3: female rapper, half-time, cold] Sunday I went home to my banks, left a brown line at nine feet like a ring in a tub Developer's billboard by the highway: "Riverbend Estates. Live by the River." Now you live in it, love You'll pump it out, paint it over, call me "hundred-year" again, so the next ones buy I'll be back on a Thursday. Watch the heron. When she leaves, you got three days to fly [Final Hook: full choir, guitars wide open] Hundred-year flood (hundred years!). That's the name you gave One percent a year, so you built on my bed and you sold it like it's safe Thirty-year mortgage, thirty rolls of the dice. That's one in four Hundred-year flood (hundred years!). I don't read calendars. I read floors [Outro: the choir holds, the water roars, one timpani hit, cut] [End]
