Calumet Arterial

[Verse 1]
Lena's knuckles, a pale mountain range on the receiver's plastic.
The window glass sweats with the pressure building in the room, drastic.
A city's worth of evening noise gets swallowed by the quiet hum
Of a pulse that hammers in the wrist to say the fight has just begun.

[Chorus]
And in his blood, a prophet screams for someone else's god to pay.
To tear the asphalt from the street and build a kingdom from the gray.

[Verse 2]
"There's nothing more to do," a voice like static on the line had said.
She counts the bricks across the alley, traces sutures in her head.
The L train rattles past the block, a shudder running through the floor.
A testament to all the weight a single, tired body bore.

[Bridge]
He’d trade the marrow from his bones to be the shield against that harm,
To stop the fever in the wire running up a fragile arm.

[Outro]
A siren sings on Calumet.
The pressure drops. But not just yet.