[Intro — coin click loop, bass only, 8 bars] (spoken, half-whispered) Coin. Drop. Click. Nothing. Coin. Drop. Click. Nothing. [Verse 1 — rap, full flow, drums enter on bar 3] Corner store, half past one, buzzing lights, glass got a knee-print in it from the other night. Bar's hanging crooked, been that way for months, same shelf, same slot, same almost, same nothing. I don't even want it anymore, that's the joke — haven't eaten one of those since I was nineteen, broke. But it's the hanging. It's the way it don't drop. It's the half-a-turn short and the sound of the stop. Fed it a dime, fed it two, fed it four, told myself that's it, then I fed it some more. Panel goes red, panel goes dead, and I'm standing there arguing with a machine in my head. [Hook 1 — sung, melodic, half-time drums] Broken vending machine, take my money again. I know how this ends and I'm still standing here. Broken vending machine, you know where I've been. I keep coming back, I keep coming back. [Verse 2 — rap, tighter, less drums] Janitor's leaning on a mop, laughing at me, says "son, that box been cursed since before your daddy." Yeah? Then why's it plugged in. Why's it lit. Why'd somebody bother to keep the lights on it. That's the part that gets me — it looks like it works. Green glow, clean glass, price on the front, every single thing about it says go ahead, and every single time it takes the coin and plays dead. I know the hum. I know the spring that won't let go. I know the shelf where the good stuff goes to die, slow. Close enough to touch, too far to buy — they said walk away, man. It ain't the dollar. It's the almost. [Hook 2 — sung, fuller, backing vocals] Broken vending machine, take my money again. I know how this ends and I'm still standing here. Broken vending machine, you know where I've been. Row E, slot four. Row E, slot four. [Verse 3 — rap, beat drops to bass and coin click only, hardest bars] Look — I ain't stupid. I got a job. I got a car. I got people who call me and I call 'em back, far as anybody knows I'm fine, I'm good, I'm great, I just got this one habit I can't shake. It's one dollar. One. That's the whole bill. Ain't about the money and it never will — it's about the maybe. It's about the this time. It's about a thing that's stuck refusing to be mine. [one bar — silence] One more push. [one bar — silence] One more shove. [one bar — silence] One more coin. [Final Hook — full band, maximum energy] Broken vending machine, take my money again. Broken vending machine, I keep coming back. Broken vending machine, you know where I've been. Broken vending machine — spit my heart back out. [Outro — spoken, dry, no music but the coin click] Row E. Slot four. Half a turn short. Same way I do everything I love. [click. fade.]
