Harmattan Hum

[Verse 1]
The air in Osu hangs thick from the 8pm heat, we push the door.
Sound of the whole street dies, just the scuff of our feet on the terrazzo floor.
Four phone screens, the only stars we fit to see that August night.
"'Chale, you go drain the battery,'" you whisper, bathed in that white light.
We were a building in progress, a floorplan drawn on dusty ground.
Just the sound of the cards slapping table, was the only sound.

[Chorus]
And we never talk about it, the way that quiet felt so loud.
We built a whole kingdom from that one small light, heads bent in a crowd.
Then we laugh like e no mean nothing.
Just the harmattan hum, and the feeling.

[Verse 2]
Now the WhatsApp group is a ghost town, just blue ticks and a new profile pic.
The scaffolding we used to climb is just rust now, the concrete set too quick.
I see your face on a timeline, holding a kid I never meet.
You're building your own new structure on some far-away, foreign street.
We send money home for the foundation, for the walls to stand up strong.
But the architect's plan we made in the dark, chale, we read am wrong.

[Chorus]
And we never talk about it, the way that quiet felt so loud.
We built a whole kingdom from that one small light, heads bent in a crowd.
Then we laugh like e no mean nothing.
Just the harmattan hum, and the feeling.

[Bridge]
(Distorted Vocoder)
Did we reinforce the wiring?
Did we check the load-bearing wall?

[Outro]
The door clicks shut, back to the 8pm heat, the generator noise.
Left the kingdom back in that room, with the ghosts of our younger voice.