Specimen Tag

[Verse 1]
The Realtor's smile on that sign’s like a bleached-out tooth,
under the glare of the motion light on Oleander youth.
It's Tuesday, two AM, the cicadas doin' their drone thing,
you cut the engine, coastin', check your phone screen.
That fescue lawn's a monoculture, sterile and bright,
you say "This whole damn block's a parasitic blight."
The air's so thick you could bottle it, tastes like pollen and doom,
"'Just grab it,' you whisper, 'clear some rootin' room.'"

[Chorus]
Red stake, white sign, black letters gettin' bold,
we're diggin' up a future that they've already sold.
Specimen tag for a neighborhood, laid out on the trunk mat,
just a little horticulture, ain't no harm in that.

[Verse 2]
Car door clicks soft, my sneakers sink in that manicured topsoil,
left a little pluff mud track, a Gullah ghost to spoil
their perfect little grid. My pulse is a hummingbird trapped in my wrist,
you got the shovel, I got the nerve, a symbiotic twist.
It gives with a groan, a taproot pulled from unprepared clay,
a clean extraction, catalog the whole damn DNA
of this invasive species taking hold on Whitaker Street,
just another sample for the lab, quiet and discrete.

[Chorus]
Red stake, white sign, black letters gettin' bold,
we're diggin' up a future that they've already sold.
Specimen tag for a neighborhood, laid out on the trunk mat,
just a little horticulture, ain't no harm in that.

[Bridge]
The cold metal sign is sweat-slick in the back of your hatchback,
we're takin' it back to my place, there ain't no turnin' back.
Gonna hang it by the flytrap, call it Audrey IV,
a souvenir from a territory war.

[Outro]
Just a little transplant operation...
Fadin' out now on the station.