Shoulder Grammar

[Verse 1]
The wale on the corduroy collar sits easy on your skin.
You notice it on the Victoria line, the journey from Brixton in.
For thirteen hundred Tuesdays, you held your breath inside,
A silent armature of tension where you taught yourself to hide.

(Spoken word interlude, a woman's voice, distant, like a memory)
"Fola, are you holding that right? Don't let it drop. It will break into a thousand pieces."

[Chorus]
And oh, a new shoulder grammar.
You're unlearning the stutter and the stammer.
The weight is gone, the echo of its hammer
Is just a story in the glaze, a silent panorama.

[Verse 2]
The blueprint of that old ache is fading from the bone,
A city you built for one, now you can leave the structure all alone.
The loom inside your sternum has finally cut the thread,
You're breathing in the damp air for what's coming up ahead.

[Chorus]
And oh, a new shoulder grammar.
You're unlearning the stutter and the stammer.
The weight is gone, the echo of its hammer
Is just a story in the glaze, a silent panorama.

[Bridge]
That hairline crack they fired in you,
Is where the patient calm is seeping through.

[Outro]
A new grammar.
Just the river's quiet glamour.