A Different Kind of Debt

[Verse 1]
The Michigan Central clock is frozen at a quarter-to-four.
Got the passenger window taped up from the week before.
The bass from this bootleg cassette rattles the dash.
Feels good, like a secret I ain't trading for cash.
Feels like the first clean breath after breaking the surface.
For two-point-six miles, I got my own damn purpose.

[Chorus]
Just one more time around the block for me.
Just one more minute that I get to be free.

[Verse 2]
Then I see your lamp through the sycamore branches, cuttin' the gloom.
The one we patched up for your third-grade bedroom.
And the joy in my chest just collapses and rusts.
Turns from a rare bloom to a handful of dust.
You once whispered, "You're the only key that fits this door."
But the weight of that lock ain't what I'm driving for.

[Bridge]
This isn't freedom. This isn't grace.
It's just circling the edges of the same damn place.

[Outro]
The engine cuts out.
The house holds its breath.