Unlit A-Road

[Verse 1]
The Old Kent Road flyover's humming a low G minor hum,
First test is the underpass, see if you go quiet or numb.
Past the shuttered Jamaican spot—jerk smoke ghosting the glass,
Then the buddleia cracking the pavement, life that's built to last.
You watching my trainers on the grit, I'm watching your jawline,
Tracing the map of my ends, this concrete ley line.
You ain't said much since we left the bar on Peckham Rye,
Just watching the sodium glare catch the corner of your eye.

[Chorus]
This is the postcode catechism, every crack a new artery.
You walking the perimeter, you following after me?
This is the brick-and-mortar scan, the brutalist body language.
You tryna learn the dialect or you just a day-trip tourist?

[Verse 2]
Past midnight, Tuesday, smell of old rain on the hot metal lid of the bins,
The foxes know our movements, they cataloguing our sins.
Through the estate where the security light's been busted for a decade,
Past the window with the single lamp, a promise poorly made.
You kick a loose stone, it skitters, echoes off a wheelie bin,
You ask me, low, "You ain't scared of this? Never felt fenced in?"
I just point up at the tower block, the floors stacked up like bone,
Said, "Some see a cage, I see a thousand ways of being alone."

[Chorus]
This is the postcode catechism, every crack a new artery.
You walking the perimeter, you following after me?
This is the brick-and-mortar scan, the brutalist body language.
You tryna learn the dialect or you just a day-trip tourist?

[Bridge]
(Yeah)
(Trace it)
(Uh-huh)
(That way)
(See it?)
(London)
(Right there)
(Keep up)

[Outro]
The key's in my hand, scraping my palm, cold from the night air.
Lobby door's humming. You staying out here or you taking the stair?